Hyper Dimension Wars
by Kamen Rider Chrome
Summary: While guarding a new device created by Smart Brain Corporation, the Z Titans are attacked by the Knights of Tartarus. The device is activated and two Knights are transported another world and then along the way they discover...
1. Chapter 1

The suitcase was knocked open from the impact with the road after it fell out of the hummer. While the rest of the Z-Titans fought with the Knights of Tartarus and their Slade-bots, Draco and Copycat's eye fell upon the silver and red device that had fallen out of the suitcase.

It was the Hyper Inzecter, Smart Brain's latest project.

"IT'S MINE!" Copycat yelled out as she lunged for it.

"NOT THIS TIME, ONEECHAN!" Draco protested as he too made a grab for it.

The twins grabbed the Inzecter at the same time, fighting over it s they pulled on it hard. Somehow, while they were fighting, one of them touched the switched.

"HYPER CLOCK UP!" the Hyper Inzecter cried out in a robotic voice.

"Nani?" Draco questioned as green tachyon energy waves were released by the Inzecter.

"Oh s-" but whatever Copycat was trying to say was easily cut off as the Cat and Dragon Knights vanished in a flash of green tachyon energy. The tachyon particles faded in the air and the flash had caught the attention of the teams.

"DRACO!" Jinx screamed, horrified.

"KAT, NO!" Aqua yelled out.

The two had vanished into thin air.

* * *

"Are you sure we're going in the right direction, Aang?" a tan skinned girl with blue eyes and brown hair, clad mostly in blue, asked. She was 14.

"I'm sure of it," Aang, a boy in unusual orange and yellow clothes replied. He was bald and he had grey eyes with a tattoo of a blue arrow on his head with two matching ones on his hands. He looked a bit like a monk. He was 12.

"Are you?" the sarcastic remark came from a boy with brown hair and tanned skin like the girl and wearing blue as well. His hair was pulled into a ponytail. He was 15.

"How about you?" was the sarcastic reply of a girl in yellow and green with her black hair ties into a bun at the top of her head with a green headband. Judging from her eyes she was obviously blind. She was 12, like the bald boy.

These people were Katara, Aang, Sokka and Toph. Their mode of transportation was quite unusual as they were riding on a large white creature with shaggy fur, a beaver like tail and SIX legs. It had two buffalo-like horns and an arrow on it head similar to Aang's, only grey. It was also, flying, yes, flying.

It was a flying bison and they were in the air.

Aang said, "I just have this feeling like something is going to happen today," Aang said hopefully.

"Yeah, like people are going to start falling out of the sky!" Sokka remarked sarcastically. How right he was.

Suddenly, there was a green flash of light above them. Toph couldn't see anything unless she was on the ground but she felt compelled to 'look' up. It was a feeling.

"What is THAT?" Sokka asked no one in particular. Katara and Aang were baffled and silenced.

They then saw, when the light faded, figure of a human began to fall, and fall hard, upon the saddle on Appa the flying bison's back.

Sokka then said, "It's not like gold pieces are going to fall out of the sky!" Everyone looke at him strangely and he shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

"Who is he?" Katara asked, looking at the unconscious visitor that had, quite literally, fallen out of the sky.

"He's gotta be from the Fire Nation! Look at his colors!" Sokka exclaimed. Everyone rolled their eyes. "What?"

"Sokka, you say _everyone_ you can't trust is from the Fire Nation," Aang responded.

"And have I ever been wrong?" Sokka questioned.

"You thought Aang was a Fire Nation spy when we first met him," Katara reminded.

"Yeah, but that was because I didn't know him too well, but all is forgiven, right Aang?" Sokka said. "Aang?"

Aang was looking at the guy who had dropped in out of the sky. The mysterious stranger was clad in a red bodysuit with black gauntlets and boots. His torso was covered in black armor with shoulder guards that pointed up and a silver chestplate. His head was hidden under a black helmet with a horizontally grilled visor, which nearly hid the round red eyes underneath. On his chest was a red symbol of a dragon. Sokka was poking at the helmet with his boomerang. "Sokka, stop it," Aang scolded firmly.

"I was just checking if he was still awake," Sokka gave an excuse. "Or even alive."

"I can hear him breathing," Toph said. "Is that enough of a clue?"

"Hey, what's this?" Katara asked as her eyes fell upon the ornate belt around the stranger's waist. It was silver. Her hand went over to the rectangular buckle that held a crystal in the centre. There was a visible dragon symbol in the crystal. Her eyes then saw a slot in the side of the buckle and she placed her hand on it.

"Katara, I don't think you should be touching him!" Sokka warned.

"Quiet, Sokka!" Katara snapped. Her fingers touched what felt almost like paper, but it was smoother and firmer. She pulled and the card slid out without any difficulty. She flipped it over to reveal the image of a saber with flames dancing around it. There were words printed on it and a set of numbers that she didn't recognize. They were in another language.

"A card? That's it?" Sokka said.

"Hey, check this out," Aang said as he pointed to the dragonhead shaped armguard on the stranger's left arm. "There's a narrow slot here."

"Am I the only one who thinks that we shouldn't be playing with the body of a guy we don't even know?" Sokka waved his arms.

Katara's hand went over to the buckle and then she gripped it. The buckle actually came off by being slid out of the belt. It was then that the crystal in the 'buckle' flashed and then the stranger's armor just shattered off his body like glass before the pieces vanished.

"He's…human," Sokka gasped and stated the obvious.

* * *

"How long must we walk?" complained a gloomy girl in red with black. Her eyes were narrowed and she was completely bored. She was 14.

"What's the matter, Mai?" asked a girl with braided brown hair and wearing a two piece pink outfit that exposed her belly. She had bright optimistic eyes that were the opposite of her friend's. She was 14 too. She was also walking on her hands.

"I jut hate having to walk through dirt road, Ty Lee. I hate sweating."

"I know. You prefer to simmer."

"You got that right."

"Patience, ladies," was the reply of a girl in red regal-like clothes and her hair up in a top knot. She had black hair and two bangs framed her face. She also had malicious cold eyes. Her beauty was matched only by her cruelty. She was 14 too. "We'll stop to rest at the next town. In the meantime keep your eyes peeled for the Avatar." The three of them were walking down a dirt road towards the next town or/and village.

"Yes, Azula," the girl in pink named Ty Lee said.

Suddenly, the trio heard a yell coming from…above? They saw a flash of green light and something, actually someone, fell at their feet. The three Fire Nation girls blinked at the stranger and strange she was. She was clad in a completely black set of body armor, save for the upper arms and legs which were covered in red armor. She wore a silver belt with a black buckle that had a crystal imbedded in the centre. Her head was concealed under a black helmet with two points to emulate cat ears and blood red eyes.

"Itai…" she groaned. "Where the heck am I?" She then saw Azula and her companions. "And who the heck are you?"

"I should be asking you that," Azula said, her voice dangerously soft. She did not take well to being startled.

"Oh," the stranger got up and pulled her buckle out of her belt. There was sound like shattering glass as her armor shattered away to reveal her true self, much to the surprise of the girls from the Fire Nation.

"Friends call me Kat, but I prefer the name…Copycat!" she introduced herself.

A/N: This is my first attempt at an Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Aang fic. I don't have a specific timeline but this all takes place before the season finale. Copycat and Draco are my OC's. To know all about them either read my ZKD fics or go to my profile. I do hope u will enjoy this. If not i will have to sadly delete it.

The Zodiac Knights were inspired by Kamen Rider Ryuki. A:TLA is owned by Nickelodeon.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, let me see if I understand this correctly," Azula said as she sat on the ground in a circle with Ty Lee, Mai and their newest addition that went by the name of 'Copycat' or Kat for short. "You're a Zodiac Knight and you came from another world?"

"Judging by the fact that I had never heard of the Fire Nation, or Earth Kingdom or even the Water Tribe before, that would be the most logical assumption," Kat responded. Her time with Slade had taught her that, with all the facts collected and even if the conclusion was completely ludicrous, and if they were the facts, than the conclusion must be true, despite the idea being crazy. "So, tell me, who are you all?"

"I am Princess Azula of the Fire Nation," Azula spoke matter-of-factly. There was no sense in putting any particular emphasis on her words, this Copycat would not know the importance of her title anyway.

"Call me Mai," Mai said, bored.

"And I'm Ty Lee!" Ty Lee beamed enthusiastically. "Nice to meet you!"

Kat blinked at the pink clad girl. She reminded the Cat Knight a lot of Starfire with her bubbly personality, Mai reminded her a bit of Raven when she was being gloomy and Azula…for some reason, Azula kind of reminded her of herself.

"So, what does being a Zodiac Knight mean, exactly?" Azula inquired. She was… intrigued by their strange visitor, and resolved to find out as much about her as possible. If nothing else, she could provide valuable insight about this other world she came from, and whether or not that world might be a threat.

"Alright, here's the story," Kat said and she began to tell them what she knew. For some reason, if she wanted to travel in this strange world and go home, she would have to trust these people…for now.

* * *

Appa landed near a river stream to get a drink of water. Also, it was getting late so they needed a place to set up camp. Katara and Sokka carried their unconscious guest off Sokka as Aang took Appa to the river. Toph was just glad to feel the earth under her bare feet.

"Why do we have to carry him?" Sokka complained.

"You're the strong warrior," Katara teased. "Think of this as a test of your strength."

"Katara!" Sokka yelled out as they placed the young man down on the ground, gently. "We don't even know who he is and how do we know he won't attack us whe he waked up? Besides, that armor he was wearing was kind of freaky!" He then saw Katara still holding the rectangular case in her hand. "And throw that away!"

"I can't, Sokka," Katara replied, "It's his. We don't have a right to do that."

"But his armor came off when you took that thing out of his belt!"

Momo curiously looked at the unconscious boy and began poking his face. He stirred.

"Um, Guys?" Toph said.

"It doesn't mean we should throw it away! He might need it!" Katara reasoned with her brother. Momo continued to poke.

"Guys?" Toph repeated.

"It's dangerous! What if he uses it and then uses that armor to attack us? What then? He looks like Fire Nation!" Sokka shot back.

"GUYS!" Toph shouted as she stomped her foot down, causing the ground to shake. The two water tribe's people turned to look at her. "He's waking up," she pointed.

Sokka and Katara turned to watch as their red haired 'friend' began to wake up. His eyes slowly fluttered open. They were the most brilliant green that Katara had ever seen. He sat up and looked around. He rubbed his eyes and then yawned, stretching his arms. "Where am I?" he asked himself. "Who are you all?"

Aang came back with Appa and he said, "Hey, you're awake?"

When the red haired boy saw Momo and Appa, he shouted out, "KAWAII!" and went to hug the little lemur. Everyone sweat dropped at this.

"O…kay…" Toph began, feeling uncomfortable.

"Um, excuse me? Sir?" Katara approached him and tapped his shoulder. He turned to look at her with a big smile and his eyes looking like upside down U's.

"Hai?" he said.

"Who are you?"

He blinked and then let go of Momo. "Gomenasai." He bowed. Katara bowed back. Aang also bowed in respect. "My name is Ryuki Leonard Hasuma. However, I am often called Leo or Ryuki by my friends. Who might you be?"

"I'm Aang," Aang introduced himself and then introduced the others, "That's Katara, Toph and Sokka!"

"And, Aang-san, where are we?" Ryuki asked.

"Somewhere in the Earth Kingdom," was Sokka's response.

Ryuki blinked, "Earth Kingdom?"

* * *

"And that's everything," Kat said, finishing her explanation.

Azula, Ty Lee and Mai had listened. The story sounded crazy but the way Kat spoke of it and the evidence provided from the armor she had worn, there were a lot of things that they didn't know.

"So, basically, there are 26 Knights?" Azula asked, making sure she had the facts straight.

"Well, there _were_ 26 of us, but the weaker ones already got eliminated. I'm not sure how many of us there are still around, though, to be perfectly honest," Kat answered, playing nice with these people. She was in a foreign world and she needed some companionship until she returned to her world. "But because we were chosen, we are also destined to fight one another until only ONE of us remains since in the End there can be only One. Also, we must fight in order to survive."

"Interesting…" Azula mused. By what Kat had told her, the Knights each possessed a unique power and all the powers Kat had listed were very impressive. Some of them could manipulate the elements while others could change themselves. Also, defeated Knight's power would go to the victor. It was an interesting and justifiable system. It was about survival of the fittest. "So, tell me, what it YOUR power?" Azula asked. This Copycat could prove to be a very valuable ally indeed.

"One of them is to bring to life inanimate objects but my original one is…" Kat smirked. "Well, have you ever heard the phrase 'anything you can do I can do better'? My power works that way too."

"What do you mean?" Ty Lee asked.

"I'm a Mimic. I can copy the abilities of anyone I see."

There was silence.

"Anyone?" Azula inquired, her mind already churning with the possibilities. Meeting this Copycat had truly been the greatest of windfalls.

"Only as long as I get a good look at the person's abilities," Kat further explained.

"Well, now Kat," Azula purred, "We know about you so it's only fair that you know about us." Azula had already resolved to make Copycat one of her allies. And the first step to doing so would be letting her know exactly whom she'd be working for. Power was a strong motivation for many people, and she sensed Copycat was one of them. Once she knew the strength of the Fire Nation and how much of that strength was directly available to Azula… well, then the game could start in earnest.

"What are you doing?" Mai whispered to her friend.

Azula held back a flash of annoyance, whispering back while watching as Ty Lee and Kat conversed about braiding hair, "She might be useful to us and can help us capture the Avatar."

If Mai had heard the impatient bite in Azula's tone, she chose to ignore it. "I don't trust her. Did you hear what she said? She can copy anyone's abilities, mine and yours included," Mai warned.

Again, Azula stopped herself from biting the head off her least obedient ally. They _were_ friends after all… And Mai's caution was a commendable aspect of her personality. "True, but I believe the benefits outweigh the risk. She seems more desperate to return to her own world than anything else, and I might be able to provide her with that."

"Can you?"

"Maybe, maybe not, but we'll still get a powerful ally on our side," Azula finished, in a tone that brooked no more argument. One day, she really would have to do something about Mai's inclination to disobedience. She then turned to Kat, "Copycat!"

"Yes, Azula-Ojousama?" Copycat responded.

Azula raised one eyebrow. Considering that the girl had dropped into their world only a few hours before, she was amazingly astute to comprehend the reality and politics of her situation so quickly. "Ojousama. I like that. How about we help you as long as you help us?"

"With what?" Kat asked. Azula smirked. She could hear the eagerness in Kat's voice. This could be easier than she'd expected.

"Do you know about the Avatar?"

* * *

"So the world, THIS world, is divided into 4 nations?" Ryuki inquired.

"There _were_ 4 nations," Aang said sadly.

"The Air Nomads were completely destroyed by the Fire Nation 100 years ago. Aang's the last one," Katara said depressingly.

"My condolences," Ryuki said, nodding his head. "So there are only 3 Nations left, correct? The Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe?"

"Yeah," Katara said.

"Okay, I can't take this!" Sokka shouted out, frustrated. He pointed accusingly to Ryuki. "Are we supposed to believe that this guy IS even from another world? He could just be crazy or a spy!"

"Sokka, look at his clothes," Katara said to her brother. "Have you ever seen clothes like his? And…these?" Katara pointed down at Ryuki's rectangular case as well as his communicator and phone.

"Okay, so he has some fancy toys! Can he really prove that he is from another world?" Sokka demanded.

"I believe him," Aang said.

"WHAT?" Sokka exclaimed.

"So do I," Toph added, crossing her arms and leaning against a tree. "His heartbeat hadn't changed much since he began talking. It either means he's a really good liar or he's telling the truth."

"Or he's crazy," Sokka supplied.

"A possibility too."

"So, what should we call you then?" Sokka asked.

"You may refer to me as Leo, Sokka-san," Ryuki said respectively. "But Ryuki works just fine as well."

"I think we should just call you Ryuki," Katara said smiling. "So, what's your world like?"

"And where did that armor come from?" Aang added.

"And what about those cards?" Sokka asked as well. Katara and Aang stared at him. "What? I want to get to know him too!"

Ryuki smiled as Toph joined them. "Alright, but you just have to keep your mind open."

* * *

"So a twelve year old kid is giving you trouble and your job is to capture him for the Fire Lord?" Kat asked.

"He is no mere twelve year old," Azula told her. "He's the Avatar and-"

"And master of all 4 elements," Kat nodded, after hearing it already the first time. "Please," she snorted. "Back in my world there are a lot of guys who've mastered more than 4 and there's this Knight called Libra who's mastered **10 **elements." Kat saw the shocked look on their faces.

"T-ten?" Ty Lee stuttered.

"That's ridiculous!" Mai protested. "There are only 4!"

"Let her finish, Mai," Azula said firmly, interest swiftly replacing her initial annoyance at having been interrupted. She then turned to Kat, "Ten elements, you say?"

"Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, Darkness, Metal, Wood, Thunder and Ice," Kat listed. "Yeah, those are basically it."

"Impressive. I would very much like to meet this Libra," Azula mused, her eyes gleaming.

"Maybe I can show you around my world like you show me yours," Kat suggested. "How does that sound?"

"Hmm…Maybe sometime later." Azula easily dismissed the topic now that she'd gotten what she'd wanted. "In the meantime…we should get you a change of clothes."

"What's wrong with the way I dress?"

* * *

"So there are a lot of people with powers in your world?" Aang inquired.

"Hai," Ryuki nodded. Momo was perched on his shoulder.

"As ridiculous as all that sounded, way cool," Sokka said.

"Especially when you talked about that Superman guy," Toph added, impressed, wanting to test her skills with the Man of Steel.

Katara then said, sympathetically, "Ryuki…"

"Hai, Katara-san?" he responded.

"You seem pretty calm about all this," she said carefully. "I thought you'd be panicking once you've been stranded in a strange world."

Ryuki sighed. "A few years ago I would've," he admitted. "But let's just say that I've gotten used to it. Let me tell you about ONE really crazy adventure we had."

"We?" Aang asked.

"The Teen Titans," Ryuki said, smiling proudly.

* * *

"Time to make camp, ladies." Azula ordered. "I want you all fresh for tomorrow." She added, getting up. "We'll get new clothes for Copycat, later."

"Welcome to the team!" Ty Lee exclaimed as she glomped Kat. Kat felt herself blushing.

Kat then remembered and thought sadly. How was everyone back home holding up with her disappearance? What about Rose and Cathy? Grant could take care of himself but what was Slade doing now?

She blamed her brother. He had activated the Hyper Inzecter and sent her here. She then paused in her thoughts and considered the facts.

He had been caught in the blast too, that meant…

Kat's lips curled into a malicious grin. If she was here than her 'dear little twin brother' wasn't too far behind.

Oh, this was getting more fun by the minute.

* * *

This is the second chapter. So far so good with the introductions. Don't worry. The action will come soon. Do you want a scene with the Z-Titans or Zuko and Iroh? Anyway, they're on their way to Ba Sing Se. Hopefully, Ryuki can help out. You think Kat will betray Azula and her friends or remain loyal as it seems fit? Ideas, I need ideas. My first Avatar fic. Takes place somewhere between the 5 months when the Titans are fighting the BoE so Ryuki hasn't changed his appearance.


	3. Chapter 3

It had just been a simple transporting mission. The Hyper Inzecter was developed in Smart Brain Tokyo and based on the reports Shadow had received it had the power to travel through space and time. With power like that, anyone could make themselves a god. This was why Shadow had volunteered the Z-Titans to guard the hummer while they transported the Inzecter to Smart Brain JC where it would be further tested and then locked in the vault so no one could get to it. Pluto and Gizmo designed the vault and there were a lot of security measures. Both Pluto and Gizmo explained what exactly did what but Shadow merely nodded his head. He had more to think about than techno-babble.

In any case, the Z-Titans (Shadowcobra, Draco, Pluto, Terra, Jinx, Blackfire, Mortuary and Renia) were traveling alongside the hummer when suddenly the Knights of Tartarus (formerly known as Team Tartarus) ambushed them. Copycat had demanded they give them the Hyper Inzecter and she snapped her fingers to reveal an army of Slade's androids ready to attack on her command.

To put it simply, it had been chaotic.

When the suitcase carrying the Hyper Inzecter was knocked open, nobody noticed it right away. Well, almost no one.

"IT'S MINE!" Copycat yelled out as she lunged for it.

"NOT THIS TIME, ONEECHAN!" Draco protested as he too made a grab for it.

The twins grabbed the Inzecter at the same time, fighting over it as they pulled on it hard. Somehow, while they were fighting, one of them touched the switched.

"HYPER CLOCK UP!" the Hyper Inzecter cried out in a robotic voice.

Suddenly, there was a green flash, the scream of the twins and then…silence.

Draco and Copycat were gone as well as the Hyper Inzecter.

This was VERY bad.

The Knights of Tartaurs then retreated, ARMS dragging Aqua away as she went hysterical at Copycat's disappearance. They disappeared when the Slade Bots distracted the Titans

The Z-Titans quickly dealt with the robots but returned to the Tower, feeling lost. Jinx, of course, was feeling the worse. She was not in a good mood. Who would be after witnessing her brother getting vaporized by an Inzecter?

Pluto was in his lab, trying to figure out what had happened at a scientific perspective. The Inzecter had activated, meaning Ryuki was lost in time somewhere but alive. This brought some hope to their currently hopeless situation. However, Pluto had no idea where Ryuki could be right now and that was what worried them. Jinx was going through some spell books she had gotten from her room and Renia was doing the same. They were looking for either a tracking spell, or a retrieval spell or even a time traveling spell. No such luck, however, since most of the spells required a blood sacrifice or the use of ingredients that had disappeared off the face of the Earth.

They were nearly at the end of their rope when Shadow came into the room with Pluto. The Snake Knight had been doing some thinking and research and, reluctantly, he made a decision.

"I'm going to call a certain dimension hopper," he said to them, "Antonitis Fenton McCrown."

"Already here," said Ant, shocking the heck out of everyone.

"Where did you come from?" Renia cried.

"Ant…" Shadow hissed.

"Oh, hello, Desmond," Ant smiled as he walked over to his once comrade in arms. "I heard what happened and quickly rushed over as soon as I could."

"Under different circumstances, I wouldn't even be asking for your help," Shadow glared at the man but then sighed, "But we have an emergency. One of our teammates…friends was caught in the activation of an experimental device."

"The Hyper Inzecter," Ant stated, nodding. "You know, this reminds me of another similar device from another universe."

"Whatever," Shadow said, cutting him off. "Just go."

"Mr. McCrown?" Jinx asked, timidly. Her eyes were still a little wet from the tears she had wept. "Can you find him, please?" Jinx really loved Ryuki, as a matter of fact, and he gave her the strength to live while she did the same for him.

"I'll do my best, Miss Wilcox," Ant grinned. "There ain't no universe I can't go!" Then, a swirling portal formed behind him and with a salute he jumped in.

"He seems nice," Terra observed. "I wonder why you don't like him, Shadow."

"I have my reasons," Shadow hissed and then he gave Pluto a glare that meant, 'Tell them or you're toast!' before he stalked out of the Common Room.

"What was that about?" Mortuary questioned.

"He looks like he has something up his butt," Blackfire joked.

"Ant and Shadow have…history," Pluto told them, choosing his words carefully. "Let's just say that, well, those two didn't get along well when they first met."

"I think that was pretty obvious," Renia replied.

"Still, if he can help find Ryuki for us…" Jinx said hopefully.

"I hope so too, Jinx," Pluto said with a sigh. "I hope so too."

* * *

Slade's mansion…

Rose had demanded that her father get the best scientists to find Kat. She was becoming increasingly hysterical as she yelled at her father. He had seen all that had happened.

"Katherine's disappearance because of her own recklessness and failure," he said firmly.

Little Cathy was peaking from behind the door as she watched her Auntie Rose and Papa Slade arguing. Grant came down and saw her. Even if he didn't show it as much, he still cared for Kat.

"Daddy, please!" Rose pleaded. She was still in armor but without the helmet. "Kat, she could be…" Slade placed a comforting hand on his youngest daughter's shoulder.

"Even though Katherine failed to retrieve the Inzecter, she might've just found out its function. I will do my best to gather the resources to bring her back," he said. Rose looked up and then jumped, flinging her arms around her father. Slade was still not used to this show of affection. Heck he was a super villain for crying out loud. Katherine was still his apprentice and he had an obligation to retrieve and then reprimand her for her failure. He just hoped for Rose and Cathy's sake that she was alright.

* * *

"What's wrong with the way I dress?" Kat asked.

"Well your brand of clothing would gather…a lot of unwanted attention," Azula chose her words carefully. Kat was wearing the uniform Slade had given her and a tight black full bodysuit that accentuated her curves was not something she should be wearing in the presence of the fire princess. "Tomorrow we'll be going to a town already taken over by the Fire Nation. We can find you some new clothes there."

"Don't bother," Kat said with a gleam. She took a careful look at Azula, Mai and Ty Lee's clothing and then snapped her fingers. A black ring of light floated up from under her feet and as it swept over her body, her clothes changed. Ty Lee clapped and Mai quirked an eyebrow.

"Cool trick!" Ty Lee complimented, applauding.

"I agree," Mai added in monotone. "Do you do kids' parties?"

Kat scowled at Mai. Her clothing was a combination of all three girl's clothing. It was blood red color with wide hakama pants and black sandals with black socks. Her top was a midriff bearing and held her symbol (the Cat) on the. It also had black sleeves that ended at the wrists with red cuffs. Her hair was in a ponytail and she still had her bow on. Her goggles were worn around her neck. She wore a pair of gloves with retractable claws and a whip around her waist. She looked both stylish and deadly.

"Impressive," Azula complimented. It was not precisely what she would have chosen for Copycat, and that did somewhat irk her… But she was astute enough to conceal her annoyance and not make a point of it. Time enough for such things at a later date.

"It was something I picked up. I have the ability to assume anyone's form so why not their clothes?" The hakama gave her freedom to move and the sandals were comfortable, she noted.

"Anyone?" Azula inquired, her interest piqued. Kat's appearance then shimmered to look exactly like…Azula!

"Anyone," 'Azula' grinned.

"Woah, seeing double!" Ty Lee shouted out.

"Okay, I have to admit that is impressive," Mai blurted out.

Azula stepped around Kat who was disguised as her and closely inspected the illusion, looking for any flaws or errors in detail. As far as she could tell, there were none. And that by itself, spoke volumes not only in this 'copying' ability of hers, but also her own ability to observe."Very nice," Azula said, allowing a hint of admiration to seep into her voice. It did no harm to flatter their ally until Azula could be certain of a firmer hold on her.

"Arigatou, Azula-ojousama," Kat bowed after reassuming her own form.

"Time to make camp, ladies." Azula ordered. "I want you all fresh for tomorrow." She added, getting up. "We'll get new clothes for Copycat, later."

"Welcome to the team!" Ty Lee exclaimed as she glomped Kat. Kat felt herself blushing as the girl's body was pressed against hers. She chanted mentally to keep herself faithful to Rose.

* * *

Sokka, Katara, Aang and Toph laughed at another one of Ryuki's stories. He was chuckling lightly.

"Aw, man! That Pluto guy's a riot!" Sokka exclaimed.

"He actually shrank you all?" Katara said in the midst of giggles.

"Boy, he sounds like a lot of fun," Aang added.

"He sounds like a disaster waiting to happen," Toph finished.

Ryuki and his new friends had exchanged stories. He felt sorry for Katara and Sokka who had lost their mother because of the Fire Nation. It reminded him of how he lost his own father even if he remembered little about him. He also empathized with Aang who had been given a huge responsibility at a young age. He couldn't blame the young Airbender for running away. He himself had done it a lot. Toph's story reminded him of another friend of his, an old classmate who led a sheltered life because of her parents. He wondered how she was doing.

When he heard about Aang's mission, he immediately jumped to his feet and said, without hesitation, "I'll help!" Since he just might be stuck in this world, he might as well make new friends and help save this world from the Fire Nation.

Fire Nation…Firebenders…Sokka didn't like them. He didn't reveal his own fire powers because he was afraid that they might turn on his because of them. He did, however, tell them about his armor, cards and other powers with a bit of a demonstration. Katara was impressed as he generated ice from his hands. Toph was impressed by his earth manipulation powers and Sokka…well, when he told them he could see the future…he laughed and was very skeptical. He reminded him a bit of Pluto who was mainly scientific in mind. However, when he predicted that Sokka would trip over the same rock, twice, they had to believe him…well, Sokka was still a bit skeptical…even after Ryuki predicted that he was going to find food if he threw his boomerang in the right direction. Ryuki did feel a little sorry for having to kill the animal to be cooked but they didn't have any other choice. Sokka was getting very hungry and well…his drooling was a little unsettling to look at. It reminded him a bit of Cyborg. Katara and Aang had gone to collect fruits from the forest. For some reason, Ryuki thought that Aang might have a crush on Katara.

He began to think about his friends back home in his world. What were they doing now and how were they holding up? Did they think he just died or working on how to bring him back?

Thinking of his friends made him think about Jinx…the love of his life. He sighed sadly. He hoped she would remain strong in his absence on not do anything crazy. They were each other's pillar, the person they leaned on for support. He sighed deeply again, catching Sokka's attention.

"What's wrong with you?" the young Water Tribesman asked the Dragon Knight.

"I miss them, everyone," Ryuki replied.

"I see what you mean. The way you were talking about them, they sound like a bunch of people you can't help but miss."

"Sokka-san, have you ever been in love?" Ryuki asked. Sokka looked up at the moon.

"Yes, I have."

"Who was it?"

"Princess Yue from the North Water Tribe. She was the most beautiful girl I ever met."

Ryuki then heard Sokka's tone turn to sadness and when he heard 'was' he asked, "What happened to her?" He had no right to ask. It was something private.

"She died to protect the Tribe," Sokka answered. "Became the spirit of the moon." He looked up into the sky.

"She must've been very amazing," Ryuki emphasized.

"She was," Sokka admitted. "Every time I look at the moon I swear that she's watching over us."

"Maybe she is," Ryuki said. He added, "Someone once told me that the people you care about are not really gone as long as you hold them in your heart." Ryuki placed a hand to his chest.

"Good advice. Who gave it to you?"

"Tazuka," Ryuki said and then he looked at the river. "A friend of mine."

"How is he?"

"Dead," was Ryuki's abrupt answer. Sokka was stunned.

"I'm sorry," it was Sokka's turn to be sympathetic.

"He was my best friend and he died to protect me while I did nothing. I felt useless and well…" Ryuki sighed. "Why are we talking about such depressing things?"

"Hey, you started it!" Sokka pointed in mock accusation.

"Hai, hai," Ryuki waved his hand. "I know. So, where are we going after this?"

"We'll be flying around until we find another town to restock for supplies. Until then we need to rest. I'm just not sure how we're going to get any supplies. It's not like we have enough money."

"You told me Toph-san was quite wealthy, correct?"

"Yeah, she is, but even her money won't last us that long. We need to stop the Fire Lord and help Aang master all the elements before Sozin's Comet comes which is by the end of the summer. If we don't, the Fire Lord will end the war in the Fire Nation's favor, and then no one will be safe."

Ryuki contemplated on telling them that he could manipulate fire but how could he tell them? However, Aang already had both a Waterbending and Earthbending teacher. Okay, Ryuki didn't know any of the Firebending moves in this world but he assumed that the basics were the same.

"Sokka-san…there's something I need to tell you," Ryuki said.

"Later, right now I'm tired," Sokka said with a yawn.

"I will stand guard then," Ryuki volunteered. "It is the least I can do."

* * *

Zuko and Iroh were still traveling together, disguised as refugees. They were also camping out in the forest, the same one that Aang and Azula's groups were camping out.

"Uncle, let's stop here for the night," Zuko said firmly as he laid down a sleeping mat.

"But we haven't had dinner yet," Iroh complained.

"Uncle, the next town is just a few miles away. Just try to hold up until then."

"Okay, but if I pass out you'll have to carry me," Iroh said with a hint of mischief in his wizened voice. Zuko rolled his eyes. He loved his uncle dearly but the man was just too eccentric for his taste. He then noticed something in the bushes. Narrowing his eyes he went over and looked for whatever was inside.

"What are you looking for, nephew?" Iroh questioned.

"I thought I saw something in here. I'm trying to check it out," Zuko replied.

"Just don't get bitten by anything strange," Iroh advised. Zuko smiled. His uncle was more of father to him than his own father. His hand reached deeper into the bush and then his fingers brushed against something metallic.

* * *

A/N: What exactly did Zuko find? When will Ryuki tell his new friends about his fire controlling powers? Will Kat become a threat to Aang and an ally to the Fire Nation? Will Ant arrive in this story again? Where is the Hyper Inzecter?

Antonitis Fenton McCrown is an OC created by Ant Crown. His fics are good despite bad grammar.


	4. Chapter 4

Draco watched the flame intently. He turned his head over to look at his new friends, all fast asleep. He had a small smile on his face as he watched them slumber peacefully before it turned into a frown. He turned back to the fire and dug his hand into his pocket. He then pulled out a folded up photograph. He unfolded it and stared at the picture. It was a picture of them all together, the Titans and Sarah, at the beach. They had asked a random guy to take their picture and he was glad to do so.

Draco's eyes wandered to the faces of his friends and teammates. He then looked at Jinx and him together, holding hands. All of them were sitting on a large beach blanket together and smiling largely at the camera. Well, Shadow and Raven didn't exactly smile THAT wide but they did smile, even if they were small.

A tear rolled down his cheek and he wiped it away with his hand. He had to stay strong and find a way back home.

* * *

A portal opened up in the middle of nowhere and two men jumped out of it. Both of them were incognito, wearing Earth Kingdom clothes. One of them, as we all know, was Antonitis Fenton McCrown, Ant for short. With him was a musical Vizard who was named Ryunosuke Kazama but also known as Ryan by his friends. Strapped to his back was his Guitar Axe and on his belt were his Trumpet Blaster, Oni Kunai and Drum Clubs.

Ant, dressed in a green and yellow tunic with dirt brown pants and a stray hat, looked around. He checked a device designed to track down tachyon particles. The signal was faint but enough to tell them that they were in the right place.

Ryan was wearing what looked like a Shinigami uniform but in deep green. His pink hair had been dyed into a nice dark brown color.

"So, where to, Ant?" Ryan asked.

"Don't know," Ant replied. "The signal's too faint for me to get a lock on it. It's here but I'm not sure where."

"Oh." Ryan then said. "We should find a place to sleep tonight. Is there a town or village where we could crash?"

"Follow me, my friend," Ant said as he led the way. Ryan followed after the Dragon Force agent.

* * *

Azula was thinking. Others might call it plotting, or scheming, but she considered it merely… thinking. Her golden gaze wandered over to her companions, finally resting over to the sleeping form of Copycat. Her eyes narrowed and her lips tugged downwards in the slightest of frowns.

_'From another world, hmm?' _Azula mused_. 'Her evidence _is_ quite convincing… but no matter. What is important is that she's here now, ready to be used. Perhaps… too ready? _Azula dispassionately reviewed the day's events, most especially what she had picked up of Kat's personality. After a moment, the princess shook her head. No. She sensed that Copycat would lie given the motivation to do so, but Azula's hunch was that Kat hadn't been lying when she'd said all she wanted to do was to go home. And Azula's hunches were usually correct in these cases. Moving on then…

_'Her abilities are most formidable. Imagine… being able to copy not only the appearance, but also the skills of one's enemies.'_ Azula could think of many occasions where the former would be useful… and the latter even more so. For so long, the Nations had each been constrained to only one element, with the Avatar being the only one capable of mastering all four. With Copycat around though… Azula smirked, the light of war and power dancing in her eyes. Now, if only she could find a way to properly harness that power…

_'Ty Lee seems very fond of her, and she too seems rather fond of Ty Lee… That could be quite useful. On the other hand, I don't believe whatever sentimentality they might share is yet strong enough to hold someone like Copycat around indefinitely. I'll need to find something else to bind her closer to me… something stronger. Until then, I'll just have to wait and watch. Let's see how she faces off against the Avatar and his friends. If nothing else, it might provide a gauge as to her exact level of power… and I might be able to detect flaws in her fighting style. After that, we'll see…_

Azula smiled to herself, a cruel, predatory grin. Things were about to get _very_ interesting…

* * *

(Morning…)

Draco was pretty much asleep as the fire had died out during the night. He was slowly awakened by the sound of splashing, very loud splashing. He yawned and slowly opened up his emerald green eyes. The sight that he would behold before him could be only described in one word, at least for him.

"Sugoi…"

Katara and Aang had gotten up to some early Waterbending training. Both of them were in the river and sparring, using complex and impressive martial art moves that astounded the young Dragon Knight. Not only that, the martial art moves were apparently making the water 'dance'.

It was like how he had done it with his powers back home just more profound.

Katara and Aang were blasting water at one another while moving their bodies in a fluid motion. Each punch and jab, the way they swung their arms and waved their hand, it all made the water work with them, like the water itself was an extension of their own bodies.

Now _this_ was _Bending_!

"You're awake," spoke a young female voice and Ryuki turned to see Toph, sitting next to him.

"Ohayo, Toph-san!" Ryuki greeted.

"Morning," Toph greeted as well. "So, enjoying the show?"

"Hai, you?"

"Can't." Toph pointed to her eyes. "Blind, remember?"

Ryuki mentally slapped himself. "Gomenasai!"

Toph chuckled. "That's okay!" Ryuki smiled, relieved. "So, Katara and Aang are doing Waterbending training. What do you think? I can only hear the splashing."

"It's amazing, Toph-san. What I call Bending is nothing compared to this."

"Wait till you see me Earthbend," Toph said. "Then you can see what's so amazing."

"I'd like that." Ryuki looked around. "Where's Sokka-san?"

"He went hunting for breakfast but something tells me it might take awhile."

"Oh." Ryuki was then struck by inspiration. "Toph-san, why don't we have a little practice match of our own? I have the ability to manipulate the dirt so I would like to see how much I would fare against your Earthbending skills."

Toph grinned. "You're on. Don't cry when I beat you."

Ryuki grinned back. "I doubt I'll be the one crying, Toph-san."

Both Ryuki and Toph stood up. It was good that the clearing was wide so that they could spare at peace. Momo was perched on a tree and watching this in interest. Katara and Aang had stopped sparring. Obviously, they had heard Ryuki challenging Toph.

"Ryuki, wait!" Aang called out to him.

"What is it Aang-san?" Ryuki asked. When he had called Aang 'Avatar-sama', Aang had told him to not call him that. It was just too formal. He preferred to be called Aang by his friends.

"Toph is a very powerful Earthbender. Just because she's blind doesn't mean she's weak," Aang advised.

"I realize that, Aang-san, and I do not doubt her strength because of her blindness."

"Just be careful, Ryuki," Katara warned. "Toph can be pretty determined to beat an opponent down."

"Believe me, I know," Aang added.

Ryuki nodded and then pulled his goggles over his eyes. He tightened the not of his scarf and straightened his gloves. "Good, this just might get interesting." He smiled.

Toph and Ryuki faced one another and soon enough the fight had begun. DRyuki made the first move and stomped on the ground, sending a wave of earth headed for Toph. Toph redirected it back towards Draco but the young Dragon Knight leapt over it and charged at Toph. He swung his fists and Toph blocked with shields she erected from the ground. Ryuki smiled and then slammed his fist into the ground, causing the ground to erupt and sending Toph flying back.

"Toph!" Katara yelled. Toph was vulnerable in the air. She was relieved when Toph landed firmly on her two bare feet.

"You're good," Toph complimented.

"Arigatou. So are you," Ryuki returned.

With a yell, Toph summoned up chunks of the ground and sent them flying at Draco. Draco did not dodge them, but he punched them to pieces and the chunks shattered. Aang whistled. Draco then summoned up chunks of earth of his own and hurled them at Toph. Toph then called the earth to encase her in rocky armor. Ryuki blinked.

"That's new," he said, stunned.

Toph charged and rammed her rocky fist into his face, sending him crashing into the river. Ryuki shook his head to get the cobwebs out and saw Toph doing a series of complex moves that then hurled a few rocks at him like missiles. Ryuki, quickly, used his telekinesis to call the water around him and then used his ice powers to freeze the ice, encasing him in a makeshift barricade. The rocks smashed against the barrier and they pummeled it to oblivion.

Katara gasped and shouted to Toph, "TOPH! STOP!"

Toph did and the stone covering her body fell to the ground. Ryuki had disappeared.

"Heads up!" Draco called up and Aang and Katara saw him in the air. He then did several flips and landed back on the ground. Toph smiled.

"You're okay," Toph said, both relieved and impressed.

"I forgot that I could teleport. This time let's see you handle a different way of using your powers. Terra taught me how to do _this_!" Draco raised his arms and a chunk of rock rose up from the ground. Draco jumped on and flew towards Toph. Toph jumped out of the way in time when he heard Ryuki charging at her.

"That's amazing!" Aang said. "He's flying on the rock!"

Toph had to admit that was impressive. Even she couldn't do that with her Earthbending...yet.

Draco sat on the chunk of flying rock and smiled. He accessed the situation. Toph was a master Eartbender so she had more skills when it came to controlling the element of earth.

He watched as Toph performed several movements and sent rocks flying at him. Despite being blind, she could 'see' using Earthbending and since he was flying on a slab of rock, she could tell where he was, or at least where the slab was.

It was time for a change of strategy. He jumped off and charged at Toph. He predicted each place where Toph would attack with her Earthbending and dodged effortlessly with the help of his enhanced hearing, agility and reflexes. He continued to dodge and used his teleportation at the last second when a stone nearly hit his head. He reappeared and then got close to Toph and threw his fist. Aang and Katara's eyes widened as…

He poked Toph on the nose.

"Kawaii no Bishoujo," Ryuki smiled. This made Toph blush a bit. She had lost.

Sokka had returned. "Okay, I didn't catch anything," he said dejectedly. He then saw everyone standing around. "Oh, what did I miss?"

"You just missed an Earthbending match, Sokka," Katara answered. Sokka waved it off.

"You've seen it once you've seen it all," he said nonchalantly only to get a pebble n the head. "Hey!"

"Wasn't me," Toph said, rolling her eyes. Sokka growled.

"I think there are some fish in the river. Maybe we can catch a few for breakfast?" Ryuki suggested. They all nodded with agreement. Draco smiled before his eyes widened with shock. "Sokka-san! Look out!" Ryuki ran towards Sokka.

"What?!" Sokka responded with shock as Ryuki threw his arm forward and his hand caught a flying knife headed towards the back of Sokka's head. Sokka scrambled away. Aang and Katara recognized that knife.

"Oh, no!" Katara yelled out.

"Nani? What's wrong?" Ryuki asked.

"She's here!" Aang yelled.

"Who?" Ryuki asked again and then he ducked under a blast of blue fire.

"Well, Avatar, looks like we meet again," spoke a deceptively casual voice.

Aang and his friends (minus Ryuki) knew exactly who this was.

"Azula!" they all cried.

"Don't forget us!" Ty Lee gleefully jumped in. Next to her was Mai.

"Nice catch," the stoic girl said, revealing several more knives between her fingers. "Can you do that again?"

Ryuki automatically didn't like what was going on. However, it was about to get much worse as someone joined them. It was the last person he was expecting to see here.

"Ohayo, otouto-chan," spoke a cruel and sinister voice in what sounded like a purr. Aang, Sokka, Katara and Toph didn't recognize the fourth member of Azula's band but Ryuki did.

"Onee-chan!"

A/N: Ant and Ryan have arrived and now Azula has found Aang and his friends. Will Ryuki reveal his fire powers to his new friends or fight without them? Also, what else do you want happen?


	5. Chapter 5

Ryuki was looking his sister up and down, "New clothes?"

Kat flipped her hair and said, "Oh, don't you know? Red and black is so in this year!" She then clenched her fists. "And so is black and blue, but don't take my word for it, you should try it."

Sokka then inquired, "Um, Ryuki? Do you know her?"

"She's my sister."

(30 seconds of complete silence.)

**"WHAT!?" **

"YOUR SISTER IS WITH THE FIRE NATION!?"

"YOUR BROTHER IS WITH THE AVATAR!?"

The twins' ears rang at this.

"Yes, she is," Ryuki said, sighing.

Kat admitted shamefully, "Unfortunately…"

"Well, now that we know everyone here," Azula produced a blue flame, making Ryuki's eyes go wide, "Capture the Avatar and kill the rest!" She commanded.

"This is gonna be fun," Mai smirked.

"Ooh! I wanna fight the boy in blue!" Ty Lee raised and waved her arm enthusiastically and jumping up and down, "I think he's cute!"

Mai, Azula and Kat turned to stare at the gymnast while Aang, Katara and Ryuki turned to stare at Sokka.

Azula rolled her eyes. The pink acrobat could have the strangest tastes sometimes. "Fine, Ty Lee." She sighed. "You can fight the water peasant boy."

"YAY! You're the best, Azula!" Ty Lee then dashed towards Sokka.

"Leave my brother to me!" Kat jumped in. Azula smiled graciously.

"Certainly. I know a thing or two about brothers if you want to know," Azula offered.

"Kay, Azula-ojou-sama!" Kat yelled out before revealing the claws on her fingertips. She slashed down on her brother who sidestepped the strike. She then went into a roundhouse aimed for his head but he leaned back before retaliating with a powerful forward kick to her chest, sending her flying back.

Toph was fighting against the Fire Nation kunoichi, Mai, and the girl was throwing her knives at the Blind Bandit, targeting Toph's neck. Toph listened and heard the knives whizzing towards her. She pulled up several earth shields before sending a wave of rocks at her opponent.

Azula was up against both Aang and Katara, both of the latter using Waterbending against Azula's advanced Firebending skills. Azula sent blue spurts of fire at them and they doused them out with water.

Ty Lee and Sokka were, well…

"Oh, you're just so cute!" Ty Lee cooed as she struck with fast jabs and punches. "Come on, cutie, let me take you home so that I can show you what a good time is really like!" she winked at him playfully.

This was weird to Sokka on so many levels. This girl was, he admitted, cute and quite pretty and her choice of clothing really showed off her sexy figure. On the other hand, she was from the Fire Nation. Pretty or not, she was still going down. He swung his machete at her and she playfully flipped back before jumping at him. She then pecked him slightly on the cheek. He stood frozen by this action. This caused her teammates to groan.

Kat, in the meantime, was taunting her brother. Both were using their martial art skills. While Ryuki only wanted to bring her down, Kat wanted to take his life. They were also talking as they fought.

"Why are you doing this, onee-chan?" Ryuki demanded as he blocked a right hook.

"Maybe you should narrow it down, little brother," Kat said as she jumped over a roundhouse kick. "I've done a lot of things."

"Why are you working with the Fire Nation? Do you know what they're capable of and what they're attempting?" He threw a punch at her.

She caught his fist and then elbowed him in the chest, taking the wind out of him. She then flipped him and he was facedown on the ground. She stood above him and twisted his arm. He grunted in pain. She purred. "Of course I do. They want to dominate the world and I say they should go for it! It's the law of the jungle here, Ryuki. Survival of the fittest! The strong shall live and the weak will die!"

Ryuki concentrated and shoved her off with his telekinesis. She dug her heels into the ground so that she wouldn't fly off. "Innocent people will get hurt, onee-chan!"

Kat casually flipped her hair and replied coldly, "So what?"

"So what? So what!? Don't you even care?" Ryuki said in an attempt to reason with her. She shrugged.

"Not really. Should I? This isn't really our world, little brother, so why should I care what happens to it?"

"You coldhearted…" he growled.

Kat snorted. "Why are we wasting time with this petty bickering?" She clicked her claws. "Time to get serious!" She then charged at him. He did a back flip and jumped onto a tree. He then sprung himself at her and delivered a clothesline that caught her by surprise. He then dug both his feet into her chest and pushed her back with great force. Kat growled. "Oh, yeah! This is gonna get serious!" She then produced hot blue flames like Azula and threw them at Ryuki.

Azula changed tactics and began throwing lightning bolts at the two benders. They dodged out of the way and if they attempted Waterbending, they could get a bad shock. Aang decided to blow Azula back with a wind blast that blew her off her feet but she quickly recovered before blasting blue flames at the Avatar.

"Give yourself up, Avatar! You may have us outnumbered but we have you outmatched!" Azula sneered.

"No way!" Aang stomped his foot on the ground and it blocked the blue flames before crashing into Azula. The Fire Nation princess was sent flying before a water blast from above, courtesy of Katara, stormed down and blasted her to the ground.

Mai was running out of knives and had to dodge from Toph's flying rock.

Ty Lee was still playing around with Sokka who didn't know if he even wanted to hit this girl at all.

Kat's hand had gripped Ryuki by is throat and pinned him against a tree. She curled the fingers of her free hand into a claw and grinned. "Any last words, dear little brother?" She squeezed his throat, cutting off his air. She taunted, "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" She began to laugh. "You know what's so funny? I bet you didn't even tell them about your powers, especially your primary one." Ryuki's eyes widened. "I mean, the Fire Nation is evil and thus all Firebenders are evil too, right? You don't want them to hate you so that's why you didn't tell them about your _gift_. Isn't that right?" Ryuki looked away. "Don't lie because I can see it in your eyes!" Ryuki began to growl. "What was that?" Kat mocked and leaned closer.

POW!

Kat got powerful fist in the stomach that caused her to double over and let go of him. She clutched her stomach.

"Shut…up…" he growled, eyes narrowing. Kat smirked.

'_Go ahead, little brother, show them who you really are_…'

With a feral cry, Ryuki fired ice beams at Kat but she then waved her arms to erect earth shields from the ground. Azula smirked, watching this. She now knew that Copycat could do more than mimic looks.

Ryuki changed tactics and turned to sand, blasting towards his evil twin sister. She pulled her goggles over her eyes and tucked her head in as she crossed her arms over her body to block and defend herself from the blast of sand. Her exposed stomach got scratched up a bit but nothing she couldn't handle. He reformed himself behind her and then performed a kick into her back. She whirled around and grabbed his leg before giving a twist that sent him falling. He pushed himself back up with his hands and spun his legs around to force his sister back before flipping back to his feet, leaping over Kat. He then grappled with her.

Kat could see it now, the flame in her twin brother's eyes. All she needed now was the oil to cause it to come forth. "I should just kill all your friends right now. There's no way you can protect them. You couldn't even protect Tazuka."

That did it.

He snapped.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Ryuki roared and then he breathed a blast of flames at her face from his mouth. She teleported away.

Everything stopped. Everyone one of Ryuki's new friends held a shocked expression on their faces.

Sokka yelled, "You can Firebend!"

Ryuki looked at everyone. '_Oh, Kami…_'

Kat smirked. She then took out her Zodiac Deck, "Time to finish this."

Ryuki's emerald green eyes looked at her hatefully as he too revealed his Zodiac Deck, "I couldn't agree with you more."

Their Zodiac Belts were summoned and they slid the decks into them.

"EMPOWERMENT OF THE ZODIAC CAT/DRAGON! HENSHIN!"

Their armors encased them. Azula watched keenly as Mai smirked and Ty Lee looked completely astounded. Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph watched (Toph can't exactly see with her eyes but you know what I mean) as two Zodiac Knights took the places of the opposing twins.

Draco's red eyepieces turned to his friends apologetically, "Gomenasai…" Copycat cracked her neck and drew a card before sliding it into her whip.

"Sword Vent!"

The Psycho Slasher appeared in her hands, the black sharp and spiky weapon held out and ready to draw blood. Draco activated a card as well.

"Sword Vent!"

The Dragon Flame Saber appeared in his hand. Both twins stared each other down before charging at one another.

Sparks flew as both weapons came into contact with one another.

CLANG!

* * *

Iroh looked up as the birds were flying in a panic. "Zuko, do you see that?" he pointed into the air.

"Just some birds flying, uncle. Come on, we need to keep moving," Zuko said.

"Birds do not simply fly in a panic. I think something is happening."

"Whatever, uncle…"

Zuko tightened the bag around his waist. Inside was an object he came to acquire and it was 'Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers'. He just wondered how much it would be worth in the next town if he decided to sell it.

* * *

Ant said, looking at the scanner, "I think I found something."

"Stop looking at that toy, Ant," Ryan said. "I'm feeling a very large amount of spirit pressure."

"And the Hyper Inzecter is right this way! We find it and we might just find the twins."

"And I say we follow my senses. I think there's a battle going on between two very powerful individuals."

Ant then thought he sensed something. He then agreed, "I think you're right. Let's go!"

* * *

Draco was pushed back against a tree by his sister's spiked sword. His own weapon lay on the ground and he grunted in pain as the spikes dug into his armor. Aang, Sokka, Katara and Toph were dealing with the three Fire Nation girls so they couldn't lend n assist.

"Your friends have abandoned you," Copycat continued to taunt as she pushed the spikes deeper into his armor. He winced. "All because you're just a Firebender. It seems that, like before, you've chosen the wrong-OOF!"

Draco hand was raised, smoke coming off it. He had blasted his sister back with a fireball. "Why don't you shut up?"

"Strike Vent!" Copycat's Feline Claws materialized and she slashed them at her brother.

"Guard Vent!" Draco's shields were activated and he blocked her vicious swipes with them before he sent the rocks at her. She sliced the rocks to pieces and went straight at him. He brought up a wall of stone in front of her and she crashed into it, her limbs spread out comically.

"Kuso!" she swore! She then looked up to see her brother coming down with a drop kick and she rolled out of the way.

"Add Vent!" Draco summoned Dragonzer and everyone became shocked as the red dragon flew in and roared.

"Everyone! Get out of here!" Draco shouted as Dragonzer distracted the Fire Nation girls and his sister. Aang blew the flying bison whistle and Appa landed before them with Momo sitting on its head. Aang, Sokka, Toph and Katara boarded the giant animal.

"Ryuki, come on!" Katara called out to her friend.

"I'll catch up with you later! JUST GO!" Draco yelled back. "NOW!'"

Aang took hold of the reins. "Yip yip!" he ordered and the flying bison went into the air, blasting the Fire Nation girls back with the force created by his ascent.

Copycat sneered, "Your friends have abandoned you."

Draco smirked. "Did they?"

* * *

Appa flew through the air while a few people were talking about what they'd discovered about Ryuki.

"I can't believe he lied to us! Why didn't he tell us he was a Firebender?" Sokka yelled up, arms in the air.

"Oh, I don't know.." Toph began sarcastically, "Maybe it had something to do with you hating the Fire Nation and Firebenders."

"I don't hate _all _of them," Sokka responded. "It's just that, well…"

"Remember your speech last night, Sokka? You told him how evil the Fire Nation was as well as most Firebenders. I guess he was afraid we might reject him," Katara reasoned.

"I guess that would make sense, huh?" Sokka rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"He must think we've rejected him or something," Katara spoke sadly. "But we haven't. He's still our friend and he's covering for us right now! He needs our help."

"We have to turn back!" Aang said.

"There's no need to do that," a voice playfully said. They all turned to the direction of the voice and saw a red, black and silver armored individual flying next to them. He was riding upon Dragonzer the red dragon.

"RYUKI!" they all yelled out happily.

"You're okay!" Toph smiled. Draco then jumped off Dragonzer and his feet shot fire to allow him to fly over.

"You're flying!" Sokka said, seeing the flames shooting out of Draco's feet.

"Something I picked up," he spoke casually before he guided himself aboard Appa's saddle and his armor disappeared. Momo perched itself on his shoulder. "Hi, Momo-chan!" He then turned to his friends. "I guess you want an explanation, huh?"

Sokka placed a hand on his shoulder. "You don't owe us one. You had every reason to hide that fact about you. You're our friend. Sure you have some skeletons in the closet, who doesn't? But what matters is you did help us out."

"Arigatou, Sokka-san."

"And now Aang has a Firebending teacher, even if you are from another world," Katara said with smile.

"I might as well teach Avatar-sama, I mean Aang-san, to learn how to control fire. I just call it Firebending because it's easier to pronounce. Back home my fire powers are either called Combustion or Pyrokinesis."

"Pyro-what?" Toph questioned.

They all laughed.

"So, how did you give them the slip?" Sokka asked.

Ryuki smiled. "Well, what I did was…"

* * *

(Flashback)

Going up against Copycat and Azula wasn't easy. Their combined flame and electrical attacks were taking a toll on his body. Since Azula had lost the Avatar, she wanted to vent out upon a red clad Zodiac Knight.

"Remember, Azula-ojou-sama," Copycat reminded. "His head is mine."

"Fine with me." Azula agreed after a moment.

Draco drew a card and slid it into his gauntlet. He then created a smokescreen around him.

Ty Lee, Azula and Mai coughed. Copycat blew the smokescreen away with Airbending and then lunged forward, digging her claws into the chest of Draco. After all this time, she had finally done it. She had finally defeated…

Then her 'brother' shattered like glass.

It was a dupe! He had used Trick Vent!

She screamed.

(End Flashback)

* * *

Aang, Sokka, Toph and Katara laughed as did Ryuki.

"If I could only see the look on her face!" Sokka said as he wiped a tear out of his eye.

Ryuki looked down sadly. Katara went over to him. She opened her water skin. "Are you hurt?" she asked. "Let me heal you," she offered.

"Can you heal heartbreak?" Ryuki questioned.

"What's wrong?"

"I had to fight my own sister. The things she said hurt more than her strikes."

"I can't understand how someone like you can have a psycho like her for a sister!" Sokka spoke up.

"Bite your tongue!" Ryuki snapped. "She's my onee-chan, Sokka-san, and I don't appreciate if you speak of her in such a way!"

"Ryuki, she tried to kill you," Sokka reminded. "How can you-?" Toph grabbed his shoulder, making him stop.

"She wasn't always like that," Ryuki said. "She used to be someone I looked up to. I still believe the sister I love is still inside her, buried under all that hate and jealousy. Besides, you don't know her like I do and I still know and believe that there is still good in her."

Everyone kept silent, amazed at Ryuki's faith.

"And don't bother buying me new clothes. I already got it covered," Ryuki said as he pressed a button on his watch. A green ring of light swept over his body. Much to the shocked eyes of Aang, Katara and Sokka, Ryuki's jumpsuit was replaced by a green Chinese shirt and dirt brown pants. He also wore a pair of black sandals and his red hair had turned black.

"Woah," was their collective reaction.

"What?" Toph asked . "What happened?"

"How did you do that?" Sokka asked.

Ryuki pulled down his sleeve to reveal his SB-Watch. He explained, "All operatives come with this watch. It helps us to disguise ourselves. I don't know how the device works exactly but it does come in handy."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"So, where to now?" Ryuki asked as he leapt from the saddle and landed on Dragonzer's back.

* * *

Kat was out of her armor and was in a foul mood and her foul mood matched Azula's. The fire princess had curtly excused herself sometime before and Mai and Ty Lee were just lying low and hoping they wouldn't be noticed.

'_I'll get you, brother_,' Kat swore in her mind. '_I'll get you even if I have to tear this entire world apart to find you!_'

* * *

A/N: Any suggestions? Should the Avatar Gang meet Zuko and Iroh? What episode do you want to have Ryuki be in? What about 'The Library'? Maybe he can help against the Sandbenders?


	6. Chapter 6

Shadow was on top of a roof of a tall building overlooking a nearby bank. He was out on patrol as were the others. His partners was Jinx and her mind was elsewhere.

Shadow took the SNK-Double Scope binoculars from his eyes and turned to Jinx. He asked, "You're worried, aren't you?" He was just trying to make conversation, despite knowing the obvious answer.

Jinx snapped, but kept her voice low enough, "Of course I'm worried! Aren't you?" She added, "Ryuki's s lost in another time or dimension somewhere and I don't know what's going on with him. I hope he's okay but I need to know."

Shadow replied, "He'll be fine. Draco has survival instincts and he's not exactly alone. Remember that he still has Yaminekoryu with him." He looked through the binoculars again.

"Did Ant report anything new?" Jinx asked. Shadow flinched. She knew Shadow and Ant had a history from what Pluto had told them but she wasn't sure why Shadow didn't like him. Ant seemed like a nice enough guy.

Shadow answered, "Not yet. Pluto gave him that scanner to track down the Hyper Inzecter. He also had it made to track down Draco's communicator as well as his SB Watch. As long as he has any of them on him, he can find him."

"Oh, okay."

Something caught the Snake Knight's eye. "Someone's trying to break into that jewelry store. Let's move!"

* * *

Ryuki stared at his communicator and sighed. It wasn't working so it was useless junk and he doubted that anyone in this universe would know how to fix it. However, he decided to keep it anyway. He stared at his SB-Watch and checked it only to find that the beacon was not functioning. He remembered that the homing beacon would only work within the range of the Smart Brain Satellite. However, said satellite did not exist here either.

They were still flying, Ryuki on Dragonzer and the rest on Appa, trying to find a town or a village to rest and restock on supplies. Now that Ryuki had joined them, they would need more supplies now.

Ryuki then reached into his pocket and pulled out small notebook. This was like a journal to him and he began writing in it with a pen. Sokka noticed this and asked.

"Hey, Ryuki, what are you doing?" Ryuki nearly dropped his pen in shock and it was a really long way down.

"I'm just writing in my journal," he replied.

"Why?"

"Because I'm in a whole new world and I need to document all this."

"That sounds like a good idea, Ryuki," Katara said.

"Yeah, too bad I can't read or write," Toph muttered.

"Well, instead of writing maybe I can do this," Ryuki said as he detached his DRA-Phone from his DRA-Cam and then held the camera up.

"What are you doing?" Aang asked curiously. Momo flew over and perched himself on the Knight's shoulder.

"I think I'm going to document our travels with my camera," Ryuki said, looking through the lens.

"How can that little thing document stuff?" Sokka asked skeptically. Ryuki smirked and then flew over to the others and flipped the screen on the side of the DRA-Cam open. He turned it on and then chose something to show them.

"Here's something you might like to see. It's when we all went to the beach," Ryuki explained as the video played.

"Cool!" Aang said excitedly.

"That's amazing!" Katara said.

"How is that picture moving?" Sokka asked curiously.

Toph asked, "Moving pictures?" She was blind and Ryuki felt a little sorry for her.

"This is just something I wanted to show you all that's from my world." He snapped his fingers. "I got an idea. Maybe when Aang does Earthbending and Waterbending training, I can record him using my camera so we can see what he needs to perfect!"

"That's a great idea!" Katara said. "What do you think, Aang?"

"Worth a shot," Aang replied. "Toph."

"Whatever. I don't need no machine from another world to see what you did wrong," Toph said.

"Hey, what else is in here?" Sokka asked as he reached for the camera but Ryuki slapped his hand away. "Hey!"

"Gomenasai, Sokka-san, but I don't think you should be handling my camera," Ryuki said apologetically. Sokka grumbled.

"Things tend to break around you," Katara added. Everyone laughed at him.

"So, Aang-san, what's the plan for today?" Ryuki asked the Avatar.

* * *

Ant and Ryan were eating in a small restaurant, enjoying a meal together. Ant had the device hidden in his clothes as to not draw attention.

"Still no sign of the Hyper Inzecter or Ryuki," Ryan said as he took a sip of his drink.

"Yeah, and the signal of the Hyper Inzecter and the traces of the tachyon particles are getting weaker." Ant agreed. "I don't think we can track it any longer when the signal disappears though."

"But we have to," Ryan said. "It was a request from the Titans."

"You're right," Ant said. He then took out some money and placed them on the table. "Let's go."

"Yes." Both Ant and Ryan got up. As soon as they did, Iroh and Zuko walked past them.

"Just a small meal, uncle, and that's it," Zuko said. He knew that his uncle had a tendency to overspend at times. Okay, a lot of times."

"I know, Zuko, I know," Iroh said as they sat down. "Waiter!"

If Ant had checked the device. He would've found the Hyper Inzecter sooner. Oh, well.

* * *

The bandit fell with a thud as his throat was slit open. Azula smiled as Kat licked her bloodstained claws.

"I hate bandits," Kat said disdainfully. She was still dressed as if she was from the Fire Nation but with the utility belt Slade had given her. She took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood of the clawed tips of her gloves. "No style or finesse."

"They're bandits," Mai said as she took a knife out of the neck of one dead bandit. "What do you expect? Besides, I don't think our money was the _only_ thing on their minds."

"The way they were leering at Ty Lee-chan, I wouldn't be surprised," Kat said with a hiss.

"Come, ladies, we still have work to do," Azula said. "Ty Lee."

"Yeah, Azula?" Ty Lee said from behind a tree. She had fought off the bandits too but she was not the type to kill like Azula, Mai and Kat. Seeing how Kat and Azula _enjoyed_ killing the bandits just unnerved her a bit to the point of making her sick. What had she gotten herself into?

"Time to go," Azula said. "There's a town up ahead where we can go to get a good meal."

"But first," Kat said as she snapped her fingers and the girls' garbs turned into those of the Earth Kingdom. "We don't want any soldiers coming after us for being Fire Nation, do we?"

Azula smirked. Kat was a good planner, and although older than the princess, was quite respectful of her. As she should be. "Good idea. Let's go, ladies. Then we can go after the Avatar."

"And I can bag that cute Water Tribe boy!" Ty Lee said gleefully. The others stared at her. "What? I think he's cute."

"Having crushes on the good guy," Kat said with a sneer. "Those never end very well, trust me."

"What makes you say that?" Mai asked the mercenary apprentice of Slade.

"I've seen it happen a lot of times, Mai. The bad girl/guy always ends up falling for the good guy/girl and then they become goodie-goodies too. It's horrible. You should see my brother with his pink haired girlfriend. She used to be so bad but now she's just a hero." Kat stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"Pink hair?" Ty Lee beamed, "I'd love pink hair!"

"You would, Ty Lee," Azula said evenly. "You would."

"What are we waiting for, Azuka-ojou-sama? Time to eat and I'm hungry!" Kat said, pointing forwards.

"Didn't you like eat a ton of fruit?" Mai asked. "And a bird?"

"Yeah, so? What's your point?"

"Never mind…" Mai sighed.

* * *

"Mini vacations?" Aang questioned their dragon-riding friend.

"Just something to do to unwind," Ryuki elaborated. "I mean you all have been working hard and you do deserve a bit of something to do."

"No way!" Sokka protested. "We need to work on defeating the Fire Nation! We don't have time for vacation!"

Ryuki chuckled. Sokka reminded him a bit of Robin.

"Sokka, I think we should. Just one day to relax and then we'll continue," Katara reasoned.

"No way!" Sokka crossed his arms.

Ryuki was recording with his DRA-Cam and said to Katara, "He's very stubborn, isn't he?"

"As long as I've known him," Katara said with a sigh.

"Let's just vote," Toph suggested. "It's better than just bickering."

"Good idea, Toph," Aang said. "And Appa needs to rest anyway. We've been flying for hours now."

"And we're flying over a desert too," Ryuki added looking down. "Lots and lots of sand…" It reminded him of the desert outside of Jump City. "Oh and there's some cacti too."

"So, who votes we go on mini-vacations, raise their hands!" Ryuki raised his, followed by Katara, Aang and Toph.

"Hold on here!" Sokka shouted.

"Sorry, Sokka," Katara said. "Majority rules."

"Well then, let's start now," Aang said as he directed Appa down onto the ground. "Our mini-vacations start now!"

"We should be training and-" Ryuki fired a freeze ray to his mouth and ice covered it, muffling him. "Ump! Ump!" He pulled at the ice.

"I've been trying to shut him up for ages," Katara said relieved. "Thanks, Ryuki."

"You're welcome," Ryuki smiled.

* * *

Jinx had returned from her patrol with Shadowcobra and then fell on her bed, exhausted, physically and emotionally. She reached under her pillow and took out a sketchbook. She flipped through it, revealing a few pictures of unicorns. At first glance, no one would suspect her as the unicorn loving type and none of her old friends at the HIVE knew either. They would laugh at her and the other Titans would make jokes about the 'witch that loved unicorns'. If any of them found out and cracked a joke, she would hex them to next week.

Well, not all the Titan would joke. She knew one especially who would love to see her sketches.

Draco…Ryuki…She had not shown him her sketchbook yet but when he came back (not if) she would show it to him. Unlike the others she knew he would appreciate them and not laugh and think it was stupid. The guy had a thing for cute objects. He had a big teddy bear in his room that a friend of his had given him for his birthday.

Jinx sighed sadly as she flipped through the sketchbook and then found one particular sketch. It was a picture of Ryuki posing in one of his uniforms. She flipped through it again to find a picture of his face, smiling at her. A tear fell from her eye as she hugged the sketchbook to her chest. She then stared at the pink stoned promise ring he had given her. She remembered the words engraved on the inside perfectly.

'My Heart, My Love, My Soul Mate.'

She remember when he'd given her that ring and she cherished it since. Just like the confession back on their first date. It was magical.

Gizmo and Pluto were still trying to figure out how to find Ryuki as did Shadow who was going through his books for a spell. Jinx had gone through her books as well but didn't find anything that could help. They had to know where he had been transported to before they could transport him back.

Jinx felt fear. What if they never found him again? She shook her head. No, she had to stop thinking like that. It just wasn't healthy. Ryuki, she knew, was a survivor and he still had his armor with him and his powers so he wasn't exactly helpless…

Then she remembered the state he was in back in Tokyo when he had gone after Scorpios alone and…she just hoped it wouldn't happen again.

She remembered when she once had a relapse and nearly stole a beautiful golden necklace. She didn't and couldn't do it, obviously, but it was still just so tempting. She broke down and cried, telling him. She was afraid he would reject her but she told him anyway and he had held her a she cried. He had comforted her and said to her that he would help her and never turn his back on her. That was when she realized his feelings for her were sincere and that he just wasn't getting another criminal out of the Titans' way. He wanted to reform her and he did.

It had broken her heart that day when Blood had tortured him and then made him turn into the savage Ifrit Orphenoch. He was just an unbelievably nice guy and she loved him for being who he was. She didn't want him to change, ever.

All she could do was pray to the Hindu gods and hope, putting her faith in them.

'_Please, bring him back to me._'

* * *

A/N: The next chapter will be based on "The Library" episode. Also, Ant and Ryan will end up in Auntie Wu's town for prediction and so will Azula, Kat, Mai and Ty Lee. You want to see these two groups fight? Who should win?

Anyway, tell me what you want to see until the next chap. I'll have Ryuki and Kaat stay around until the season finale to see how they change things. I'll take any suggestions but I'm not sure if I can use them all.


	7. Chapter 7

"What are we doing here?" Sokka asked irritably. He, Aang, Katara, Toph and Ryuki (their latest addition) were in the middle of the desert. Aang was sitting cross legged and holding a flute.

"Starting on our mini vacations," Ryuki stated, reminding Sokka. He had his vid-cam out. "Don't you remember?"

"We need some time off," Katara added. "We have been working hard."

"Not hard enough!" Sokka snapped only for a freeze ray to freeze his mouth shut.

"Thank you," Katara said to Ryuki.

"You're welcome," Ryuki nodded. "Don't worry, Sokka-san, it will melt soon. I hope."

"Besides, Sokka, I've been working hard on my Waterbending and Earthbending training," Aang said.

"Don't forget that you also need Firebending training," Toph reminded the Avatar. "And we got the Bender that can help you."

"I'm not a real Bender, Toph-san," Ryuki told her. "I just have the power to generate flames."

"Close enough. You did say that you use your martial arts training and fire powers together."

"Good point."

"Here we go," Aang said as he played a flute and a gopher popped out a hole and squeaked. Aang played another note and another gopher popped out, squeaking. "I'm starting an orchestra!" Aang laughed.

"Sugoi!" Ryuki said, amazed, as he recorded this. Aang played a few notes and more and more gophers popped out of their holes to 'sing.'

"This is a waste of time!" Sokka shouted. The ice was now in his hands and he was licking it. "We have to keep moving and find something to help Aang get to the Fire Lord, an updated map, anything!" He then saw Ryuki staring at him with a glowing blue hand. He was silently telling the Water Tribe warrior to shut up. Sokka gulped.

Aang's gopher orchestra was now done and now it was Katara's turn. "Now, Katara, you choose where you wanna go for your mini vacation." He held out a map to her.

"Hm, the Misty Palms Oasis looks like a nice spot," Katara said, pointing to a picture on the map.

"Good choice! It's a natural ice oasis!" Aang. "Let's go."

Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph climbed upon Appa and Ryuki mounted Dragonzer.

"Yip, yip!" Aang said as he took the reins.

"Let's go, Dragonzer!" Ryuki said to his red dragon. Appa grunted and with a slap of his tail took off followed by a crimson dragon.

"Are you sure you want to ride that thing all the way there?" Sokka asked Ryuki.

"What do you mean?" Ryuki asked as he tilted his head to the side.

"Well, dragons are Fire Nation animals," Sokka told him. "We don't want anyone to think you're from there."

"I can take care of myself, Sokka, and so can Dragonzer," Ryuki told him. "But I'll keep that in mind, arigatou."

* * *

"Those nuns make really good perfume," Ant said as he sniffed one of the bottles he had bought from the nunnery. "My wife is gonna love this."

Ryan rolled his eyes as he played his guitar. They had recently met up with a group of musical nomads that were quite pleasant if not a little bizarre. Ryan enjoyed playing a few songs with them before they had to go their separate ways. Ryan decided to continue strumming his guitar to ease his soul. He was missing Ember terribly and the Vizard loved the ghost rocker with all his heart.

"Hey, look, a town," Ant pointed out. "Let's go, Ryan."

"Shouldn't we be looking for the Hyper Inzecter and Ryuki?" Ryan said. "After all, he is a Kamen Rider like me and it is my responsibility to make sure he's safe."

"We need supplies, Oni," Ant said with narrowed eyes. Ryan sighed.

"Fine. Let's just make this quick.

They, however, weren't the only ones headed to the town. A quartet of bad girls were also headed there.

"Hey, I heard that there's this fortune teller in that town. I think her name is Aunt something," Ty Lee said as she walked on her hands.

"Ty Lee, feet on the ground," Azula snapped and the acrobatic girl pouted before obeying. "We don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

"You wish," Mai said with a grumble. "I hate green."

"You hate everything," Kat interjected, earning her a glare from the girl. "What, it's true, ain't it?"

"Whatever…"

"And fortune telling, Ty Lee? Must you believe in that?" Azula said to her overly perky friend.

"Doesn't your father hire fortune tellers, Azula?" Ty Lee asked.

"He does but I've never really believed in them," Azula shrugged. "I believe he only keeps them around for entertainment… and to deceive the stupider members at court."

"Aww, can we please go Azula, pleeeeaaasse? It'll be fun!" Ty Lee coaxed.

Azula thought about it for several moments. Well, since they were going to that town anyway…

"Alright Ty Lee." She agreed, much to the circus girl's surprise.

"Let's go then! Yippee!" Ty Lee jumped up and down.

"Is she always this hyper or did she eat too much sugar?" Kat whispered to Azula.

"Honestly, I can never tell the difference," Azula said with a sigh.

* * *

The GAang were standing in front of the oasis and gaped at it. It was not exactly what they were expecting.

"Must've change ownership since the last time I was here," Aang chuckled uncomfortably.

The place looked rundown. Then again, Aang hadn't seen it for the last 100 years.

"Maybe it's not so bad on the inside?" Ryuki said uncertainly.

"Right, let's go," Sokka said as he walked forward but some guy spat at his feet. "Hey!" The guy just looked at him and Sokka got creeped out. Ryuki narrowed his eyes. Something about these guys just didn't feel right.

The GAang walked past a melting natural ice structure before entering a café. They saw a man at the bar counter slice some fruit with a pair of swords expertly and pour it into a bowl made of ice and added a straw.

"I'd love some of that!" Sokka said as he ran towards the counter but accidentally bumped into another man who was enjoying the frozen treat. The bowl went sailing but Aang caught it using Airbending.

"Amazing!" the man that Sokka had bumped into said as he walked towards Aang.

"Thanks," Aang gave him back his bowl. "Sorry about my friend."

"Not that," the man said. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Professor Zei of Ba Sing Se University. I can't believe I'm seeing an Air Nomad. I thought they went extinct. Tell me, which temple did you come from?" The man measured Aang's head as Aang answered his questions.

"These are my friends," Aang introduced. "This is Katara, Sokka, Toph and Ryuki."

"I am pleased to meet you all," the Professor said.

The group was soon seated around a table listening to the Professor's tale as they all enjoyed a frozen bowl treat each.

"So, I've been traveling to find the Legendary Library of Wan Shi Tong," the Professor explained as he unrolled a parchment with a picture of said library.

"What's the big deal about some library?" Sokka asked.

"This is not some normal library," the Professor said. "Wan Shi Tong, the great spirit, was said to collect knowledge from all over the world with the aid of foxes."

"They must be hot," Sokka said with a grin.

"I think he meant real foxes," Katara retorted.

Ryuki had been listening. He asked to confirm, "Wait, are you saying that this library has _all_ the knowledge in the world?"

"Everything you would possibly want and need to know is in Wa Shi Tong's library, at least that's what the stories say," the Professor replied.

'_That means I can find a way to get back home!_' Ryuki spoke eagerly.

"Hey, if this library has everything we need to know, maybe we can find new updated map of the Fire Nation to help us when we nail the Fire Lord," Sokka said. He then stood up. "I am now going to go on _my_ mini vacation and we are spending it at…THE LIBRARY!"

"Hey, what about me?" Toph asked.

"You gotta be in the group longer before you can pick a spot," Sokka grinned as Toph frowned.

"But the desert is so vast," Professor Zei told them. "How would we find it?"

"Aang has a sky bison and Ryuki has a dragon outside," Katara said.

"A dragon and a sky bison?" the Professor's face broke into a smile.

* * *

"The people here seem pretty friendly and happy," Ryan said.

"You got that right," Ant replied.

The Vizard and Dragon Force agent were in the town where the famous Aunt Wu resided. They came to, not only restock on supplies (these two go through their supplies rather quickly) and to get their fortune told.

"Why do we want to have our fortunes told, again?" Ant asked.

"I think it would be good to have a clue as to where Ryuki is," Ryan replied. "I mean we need any clue we can get."

"You don't seem like someone who would believe in fortune telling, Ryan," Ant said.

"I'm not. Never believed in it when I was in the Soul Society, really. They told me I was going to have a long and prosperous life. Then I got myself possessed by some dumb Hollow. It was only by sheer luck that I was able to suppress it and the Vizards found me to train me in the art of the Shinigami."

Ant chuckled.

Meanwhile, Kat was eating half of a papaya while she shared the other half with Ty Lee. Azula grimaced in disgust as the two messily devoured the fruit.

"Must you eat like _that_?" Azula snapped.

"Like what?" Ty Lee asked. There were some seeds on her chin.

"Ugh, never mind."

"I'm only eating this until we see this Aunt Wu person, Azula-ojou-sama," Kat said to Azula.

"Fortune telling, what will we do next?" Mai said in a bored tone.

"You're a bottle of sunshine," Kat spoke cynically.

"I've had all the brightness sapped out of me," Mai replied.

"Well, we're here," Azula said, ignoring her companions' usual sniping as they stopped in front of Aunt Wu's house.

"Nice place," Ant said as he stopped in front of the house with Ryan closely behind. Kat then turned to look at the two men. For some reason they both looked quite familiar to her.

"Hey, you two!" Kat called. Ant and Ryan turned their attention towards her. "You two aren't from around here, are you?"

"Nah, you?" Ant asked.

"Me neither."

"Nice guitar," Ty Lee complimented, looking at the instrument strapped to Ryan's back. "You play?"

"Yeah," Ryan answered, blushing. '_Cute girl. Gah! Remember, you're in love with Ember! Ember! Ember! Ember!_'

"Come, girls," Azula led them in. "Let us have our fortunes told." Truthfully, she was quite curious as to what this fortune telling business was about. Her father may have hired fortune tellers but she had personally never gone to have her fortunes told.

"I wanna ask about my love life!" Ty Lee spoke excitedly.

"Or lack there of," Mai muttered. Kat snickered. The Cat Knight's eyes then went over to the two men.

'_The one with the guitar is hiding something. His ki I different from normal people and I've been sensing it a lot around these Benders. He's more like a ghost or something. Oh, well. If he doesn't pick a fight or ally himself with my brother, I have no reason to fight him_.'

* * *

The Professor rode on Appa and was fascinated by the beast. Ryuki flew alongside them upon Dragonzer and the Professor had earlier said that he had never seen a dragon quite like Ryuki's before.

'_Then again, has anyone here ever seen a dragon from an alternate dimension?_' Ryuki questioned in his mind. Earlier before they set off, those strange guys in sand colored clothes seemed to be checking out both Appa and Dragonzer. There was something about them that Ryuki did not like.

"So, Ryuki?" Professor Zei spoke and then Ryuki turned to regard the Professor.

"Hai, Professor?" Ryuki responded.

"How did you come to acquire such a magnificent creature?" the Professor asked. Ryuki scratched his head and answered honestly.

"Let's just say he found me," Ryuki replied. It wasn't really a lie. The first time he encountered the dragon was during his pre-Knight days and it had tried to barbeque and devour him. Looking back it did sound like a funny story.

"Okay, according to this the library should be around here somewhere," Sokka said as he checked the coordinates the Professor had given them.

"THERE IT IS!" Toph pointed out and everyone turned to look at her. She said, smugly, "That is how it's going to sound like when we actually do find it." She waved her hand in front of her face.

Ryuki was writing in his journal. He was writing in Japanese but he was writing it in a mixture of Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. That way, only he was able to read it. It was a confusion and misdirection tactic his grandfather had taught him.

"Hey, I think I see something!" Sokk pointed. "Aang, take us down!"

"Kay, Sokka!" Aang said as he steered Appa down.

"Dragonzer, go down there," Ryuki pointed and the dragon growled an affirmative.

* * *

The four girls and two men were waiting in the living room for Aunt Wu. They had been given a good meal and the kind old lady had only said, "I've been expecting you all."

"Reminds me of Tazuka," Kat whispered to Azula.

"Who?" Azula asked.

"Just some guy I knew. He had this annoying habit of predicting stuff and they had a habit of _always_ coming true. That guy was _never_ wrong."

"Never wrong?" The princess was skeptical, but willing to believe there might be such things in the world Copycat came from.

"Ever."

"Aunt Wu will see you now," said a little girl with pigtails. Ty Lee leapt to her feet.

"Ooh! I wanna have my fortune told first!" Ty Lee waved her arm and then followed the girl to Aunt Wu's prediction room.

"She seems eager," Mai said.

"Like a beaver," Kat said in a sing-song voice. The only reason she was here was to find a clue on how to get back home or/and get rid of her brother. The Hyper Inzecter had brought her here so she needed to find a way to get it back and get back home.

Azula was just curious as to what babble Aunt Wu would spew out to try and bamboozle her. It would be an interesting exercise to pick apart the fortune teller's lies. Who knew? Azula smirked. Perhaps she could do a little fortune telling of her own.

* * *

A/N: I'll end the chapter here. Don't worry. I'll get to the part where they meet Wan Shi Tong. I got a question: Can spirits detect demons inside a human vessel because I wonder if Yaminekoryu should be revealed by Wan Shi Tong. Also, what could Ryuki give in exchange for admission into the library?

And, Ant, give me the stats and abilities of all of Ant's forms. The next chap will have the Z-Titans and then we go on to the rest of the library episode.


	8. Chapter 8

"Okay, I don't see anything that looks like a library here," Sokka said as he looked at the picture. They were all standing in front of a tall tower in the middle of the desert.

"Strange, the map said it was right around here somewhere," the Professor spoke as he scratched his head.

"Okay, can we go now?" Toph asked with some uneasiness in her voice.

"Something wrong, Toph-san?" Ryuki asked.

"It's the sand. I can't 'see' as well as I do on the ground here. I can barely feel any vibrations to tell where you all are. Right now I'm vulnerable." She added firmly, "I hate feeling vulnerable."

Ryuki nodded. Knowing Toph for a short time he realized that she was a very strong and prideful person. This was both a good and bad trait.

"Hey, what's that?" Katara pointed out, getting everyone's attentions. They turned to see what she was pointing and saw… a fox? What was a fox doing in the middle of nowhere and holding a scroll in its mouth?

Professor Zei identified it, "It's one of the knowledge collectors!" The fox then did a magnificent leap and entered the Tower from a window. Ryuki then realized something and looked at the picture in Sokka's hand.

"That tower…it looks like the one in the picture…" Ryuki said as he pointed at the tower and then the picture, pointing at the identical structure depicted.

"We're standing on top of the library?" Aang asked.

"I guess it got buried under the sand after all these years," Ryuki said with a shrug.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sokka said as he pointed ahead at the tower. "Let's go, people!"

"I'll stay out here with Appa and Dragonzer," Toph volunteered. "I can't see so I can't read. I don't really have any reason to be in there anyway."

Ryuki looked at Toph sympathetically and spoke to Dragonzer, "Take care of her, alright?" the dragon growled.

The group then entered through a window in the tower. It was quite dark when all of a sudden several candles lit up. Yaminekoryu spoke to Ryuki at that moment.

"_Aibou, something isn't right here_," the spectral apparition said.

"Hai, I know…" Ryuki said, eyes narrowed. "There's something here with us."

Suddenly, his suspicions were confirmed when a large and great owl appeared before them. "That is not normal," Ryuki mumbled. Then again, what was normal in this world.

"I am the spirit Wan Shi Tong!" the owl announced, his voice echoing. "Who dares enter my library?"

The group backed away a bit from him and the Professor came forward, "Oh, great spirit! We are but travelers seeking the knowledge in this library. Please, permit us to enter."

"Humans seek knowledge and use it for evil!" Wan Shi Tong spoke distrustfully.

"That's not true!" Sokka shouted. "We won't use the knowledge here for evil! Honest!"

"Humans cannot be trusted with the knowledge stored in this library!" the spirit bellowed. "They use the knowledge here as an advantage to harm other humans. There were others like you who sought out the knowledge but used it for evil purposes. His name was Admiral Zhao!"

Sokka, Katara and Aang fell silent. Ryuki asked, "Who's Admiral Zhao?"

"A Fire Nation Admiral," Sokka answered with a bit of anger in his voice. "We last saw him at the North Pole." Ryuki now understood. They had told him about how and why Yue died and no doubt this Admiral Zhao had been the cause of it.

"You are…the Avatar," Wan Shi Tong spoke to Aang.

Aang attempted to reason with the spirit since he was the Avatar, something the spirit could sense from the young Airbender. "Please, great spirit," Aang pleaded. "Let us in to read the knowledge here."

Katara added, "We promise you that we're not like the last group of humans who only wish to do harm with the knowledge here," Katara added.

The spirit's attention then turned from them to Ryuki as he contemplated his decision and their pleads. He asked, "You? Who are you? Why do I sense demon energy within you?"

The rest of the group turned to look at Ryuki curiously. Aang asked, "Did he say demon?"

"You're a demon!?" Sokka shouted out. Ryuki sighed, exasperated.

"No, I am not a demon, Sokka-san," Ryuki said. "And even if I was, not all demons are evil." Ryuki answered the spirit, "The reason, Wan Shi Tong-sama, is because I inherited a spirit from my father who inherited from his father and so on. The people of my family have been entrusted with guarding this demon within ourselves by sealing it within our bloodline. Do not be alarmed because the seal is strong and this demon will not get out."

"_Nice save, aibou_," Yaminekoryu complimented.

"Arigatou," Ryuki whispered back.

The spirit looked at them and said, "Very well, you may enter." The group began to cheer, "But, you must each contribute a bit of knowledge to be added to my library as an exchange for entry into my library."

The group then gave him something. The Professor gave his first edition book, Aang handed over his wanted poster, Katara offered her Waterbending scroll and Sokka gave he spirit his butterfly knot. All that was left was Ryuki to offer something.

"Gomenasai, Wan Shi Tong-sama," Ryuki apologized. "I don't have anything to contribute. I will leave."

"Wait, Ryuki!" Aang shouted. "What about your journal?"

Ryuki reached into his pocket and pulled out his journal. "But, Aang-san, I need this to record my adventures here."

"You still have that vid-cam thing," Sokka said.

"Hai, I do," Ryuki said, realizing how true Sokka was. "But I think I have something better."

Ryuki then gave Wan Shi Tong a piece of paper in which the spirit absorbed it into himself. "My what delicious knowledge. This journal is quite fascinating and it is written in a strange yet beautiful language. Very well, you may enter."

"What did you give him?" Aang asked.

"My curry recipe. I keep it in my pocket at all times," Ryuki replied.

The group went deeper into the library and Katara asked Ryuki, "Is it true?"

"What is?" Ryuki asked back.

"About you having a demon in you?"

"Hai, it is," Ryuki said as he placed a hand to his heart. "The demon inside me is my partner. I wouldn't be alive now if it weren't for him."

"But aren't demons evil?" Katara questioned.

"All life is composed of Yin and Yang, Katara," Ryuki responded, "A dark and a light side. Human, animals, plants, we all have our good and bad qualities. Why not demons?"

"You have a point there."

The group then searched through many tomes. Momo brought down some scrolls from high places to them. Ryuki was surprised to see the language similar to Japanese and Chinese and was able to read them easily. Sokka grew frustrated and threw a random scroll away.

"Nothing in here is worth anything!" he complained. Ryuki picked up the scroll and placed it on the proper shelf Sokka had taken it from.

"Sokka-san, please don't throw knowledge away," Ryuki scolded. Sokka crossed his arms and looked away in embarrassment of being scolded.

"So many different scrolls and tomes," the Professor said in awe. "Many of these had been lost forever."

"Now we know why," Aang said as he looked through another scroll and then replaced it before taking a book and flipping through the pages.

"Raven would love it here," Ryuki said.

"From what you told us about her I'm not surprised," Katara spoke. Ryuki then sighed sadly. Talking about his friends made him miss them more and more and Katara understood how it felt to be away from the people they loved. Katara missed her Gran-Gran and the people from her village but she then reminded herself of the mission she had went out on with Sokka and Aang, and now Toph and Ryuki.

Soka then found a burnt piece of paper and called the others after reading it. "Hey, guys, check this out!" he read it out loud, "The 'Fire Nations' Darkest Day'," he asked, "There's also a date here but what do you think that means?"

"Hey, I found some more burnt paper here," Katara said and Aang drew a conclusion.

"It must've been Zhao," Aang said. "Wan Shi Tong told us he was here so maybe he…"

"Destroyed everything single thing related to the Fire Nation to keep anyone from getting an advantage!" Sokka concluded.

They heard a soft growl and saw Ryuki petting one of the foxes. "Kawaii…" he scratched it behind the ears and it rubbed against him.

"Ryuki!" Sokka shouted.

"What? I like animals," Ryuki said as he continued to pet the fox. It then began to lead them somewhere. "I think it wants us to follow it."

"Well, let's go then," Sokka said.

"_Okay, who died and made him leader?_" Yaminekoryu quipped. Ryuki chuckled.

The fox led them all to a room dedicated to astronomy, complete with charts of the stars and a model of the planets circulating around the sun. It was a planetarium '_So similar to my world yet so different,_' Ryuki thought sadly. Katara saw his expression. He was using his vid-cam to record the room.

"Nice place but how does this help us?" Sokka asked. He then saw a strange stone wheel and saw that there was a place to enter dates. Feeling curious, he entered the date that stated the Fire Nation's darkest day on the wheel and the planetarium began to activate.

"Sugoi!" Ryuki said in awe as the moon and planets began to shift places

"Sokka, what did you do?" Katara asked.

"I just entered the date and-" Sokka began.

"Look!" Aang pointed.

"Amazing," the Professor spoke.

They saw the moon block the sun and then Sokka surmised, "A solar eclipse! That must be it!"

"What is, Sokka-san?" Ryuki asked.

"Firebenders get their power from the sun while Waterbenders get it from the moon," Katara explained and then she got the idea. "If a lunar eclipse weakens Waterbenders then…A solar eclipse will weaken Firebenders!"

"This is it! The secret of defeating the Fire Nation!" Sokka shouted out with glee. Katara and Aang cheered while Ryuki looked solemn before his eyes popped wide open.

"Guys, he's here!" Ryuki shouted to them.

"I KNEW IT!" Wan Shi Tong bellowed., angrily "ALL YOU HUMANS ARE THE SAME! YOU ONLY WISH TO USE THE KNOWLEDGE HERE FOR EVIL!"

"We're doing this to fight evil!" Sokka protested.

"IT MATTERS NOT ANYMORE! YOU HAVE BROKEN YOUR PROMISE AND FOR THAT THIS LIBRARY SHALL NO LONGER BE ACCESIBLE TO HUMANS!" Wan Shi Tong flapped his wings and dove at them all. "NOR WILL YOU BE ALLOWED TO USE THIS KNOWLEDGE!" He was going to attack them.

"_Aibou_!" Yaminekryu urged.

"Hai!" Ryuki shouted out as he activated his transformation, "EMPOWERMENT OF THE ZODIAC DRAGON! HENSHIN!" he slid the deck into the slot in the centre of his belt and in a flash his armor encased him much to the shock of the Professor and the spirit.

"What? Who is he?" the Professor questioned.

"A warrior of justice," Aang answered. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

"Wait!" Sokka shouted as he began searching again.

"What now, Sokka?" Katara asked, panicking.

"I gotta find the date of the next eclipse! Ryuki, can you hold the big bird for us?"

"Watch me," Draco said as he flew up with the flames under his feet. Wan Shi Tong was surprised to see this.

"A flying Firebender?" Wan Shi tong questioned. "I have not heard of such thing!"

"There are a lot of things you don't know!" Draco shouted as he charged at the big owl and planted a fist to his face. He then followed up with a roundhouse kick but the spirit flew away and then clawed at the Knight of Combustion. Ryuki then changed into sand and then blasted into Wan Shi Tong's eyes, blinding him.

The Professor was taking notes of Draco's fighting style, amazed a the Knight's abilities. "Amazing! Simply amazing! I have never seen a human with such powers!"

"Believe me, we were surprise too," Aang said. The place was beginning to fill up with sand. "Sokka, hurry up!"

"Yes! I got it!" Sokka wrote the information down. "Let's go!"

Draco and Wan Shi Tong were still fighting. Draco did not want to hurt him since he was only doing what he thought was right. Draco was also doing what he thought was right, defending his friends.

"Who are you?" Wan Shi Tong questioned. "What are you?"

Draco then answered, feeling like it was the most natural thing to say, "Call me…Kamen Rider Draco!" Draco then called forth a fireball and then hurled it at the spirit. Wan Shit Tong evaded it and the fireball destroyed several scrolls. "NO!" Draco shouted. Wan Shi Tong came at him and Draco gave him a powerful blast of telekinesis that caused him to smash into the planetarium.

"Ryuki! Let's go!" Aang called to his friend.

"Hai!" Draco said as he landed but then he noticed the Professor wasn't moving.

"Hakase?" Draco asked. (Hakase means Professor in Japanese)

"I have spent my whole life to find this place. I cannot leave," the Professor said with a contented smile. "However, I am glad to have met you. I will not regret staying here for the rest of my life."

Draco was about to object when Katara grabbed his arm. "Let's go!"

"But!"

"Come on!"

Draco gave one last glance to the Professor and waved apologetically before they all made their escape. The place was starting to be buried in sand. Wan Shi Tong intended it so nobody would get in here to steal his knowledge ever again. Spirits were just so stubborn for their own good.

* * *

Outside, Toph was trying to keep the tower from sinking but she had other problems to deal with; Sandbenders. They took her by surprise and only Appa's snort and Dragonzer's roar alerted her. She could not bend sand as well since the vibrations were distorted, causing her to not be able to sense their movements. They sailed upon boats made specifically for the sand and then began to abduct Appa. They also saw Dragonzer as a prize and attempted to capture the dragon too. 

The red dragon breathed fire at them but they blasted it with sand, causing its eyes to go blind. It was, however, able to cut off the ropes holding Appa down only for ropes to tie around its legs and hold it down.

Toph could not help Appa and Dragonzer while simultaneously holding off the Sandbenders and holding up the tower. There was so much she couldn't do alone. In the confusion, they had captured Dragonzer and Appa. Appa struggled but the ropes binding him were too strong and Dragonzer's jaw had been tied shut so that it could blast them with fire.

"Let's go!" one of the Sandbenders ordered and they all left with their prize.

* * *

Aang and the others made it out of the tower before it sank into the sands, lost forever. Ryuki, now unarmored, fell to his knees. He had left someone to die. He let out a prayer before wiping off his tears. 

"It's okay, Ryuki," Katara said to him, placing a hand on his shoulder in comfort.

"Why couldn't I save him? Why did we have to leave him?" Ryuki questioned.

"Sometimes, some people don't want to be saved," she reasoned.

"But now his death won't be in vain. We got the information to defeat the Fire Nation once and for all!" Sokka said proudly.

"WHAT!?" Aang roared angrily as they saw him grab Toph by her collar and shaking her.

"AANG! Let Toph go!" Katara shouted as she went to separate them both.

Ryuki then realized something as Momo perched itself on his head, "Where are Appa-chan and Dragonzer?"

Toph then said, "That's what I told Aang. They've been kidnapped."

"By who?" Sokka asked.

"Sandbenders."

* * *

A/N: To be fair I don't remember the episode much and I wrote this based on info I got from Wiki so everything was probably different from how the episode showed it. Then again, Draco IS in here so there are bound to be differences. Dragonzer and Appa are gone so Draco's contract with the dragon is blank meaning he will be in blank mode for the next few chaps. But don't worry. He still had his other contracts. 

The next chap will focus on the Fire Nation girls, including Kat, Ryan and Ant while they are in Aunt Wu's town. Let's see what happens there, k?


	9. Chapter 9

Dragonzer and Appa were gone and Aang was upset.

Aang shouted, enraged at Toph, "How could you let them take Appa!? Why didn't you stop them!?"

Okay, maybe upset was a bit of an understatement.

Toph appeared forlorn but then retorted with her arms swinging wide, "I couldn't! The library was sinking and you guys were still inside-"

"You could've come get us! I could've saved him!" Aang snapped.

"I can hardly feel any vibrations out here," replied Toph again, "The Sandbenders snuck up on me and-"

"You just didn't care!" he snapped again, "You never liked Appa! You wanted him gone!"

Katara and Ryuki were trying to play peacekeeper and the voice of reason.

"Aang, stop it. You know Toph tried her best. She saved our lives," Katara said calmly.

"She's right, and I know how upset you are now, Aang-san. I'm upset that I lost Dragonzer too," Ryuki added sadly. He was still a bit saddened by the Professor's choice to stay in the buried library but there was nothing they could've done in time. Or couldn't they? Couldn't he? He could've used Clock Up and saved everyone in time, even Appa and Dragonzer. He could've helped to fight the Sandbenders…why didn't he? "Fighting won't help us either! And I agree with Katara-san, Toph did all she could to save our lives."

"But who's going to save our lives now?" Sokka said as he turned towards the others and motioned to the endless desert with an arm.

Aang snapped, "That's all any of you guys care about: yourselves! You don't care whether Appa is okay or not!" He then stalked off, sulking angrily.

Katara said. "We're all concerned, but we can't afford to be fighting now."

"I'm going to go look for Appa," Aang said firmly as he unfolded his glider and flew away.

"Aang, wait!" Katara called after him, running towards the spot he took off from. She sighed in depression, "We better start walking. We're the only people who know about the solar eclipse. We have to get that information to Ba Sing Se."

"You go. I'll go after him," Ryuki volunteered. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he's safe."

"You think if we dig up the big owl, he'll give us a lift?" Sokka asked. Everyone stared at him. "What? I was just asking."

"I doubt he'd be happy to help us after what I did to him," Ryuki said, "And as for rides," he drew out three cards, "Here, these might help." He threw them into the air and called, "Wildcat, Razroclaw, Hardhead, I call you!"

"Wildcat?" Katara questioned.

"Razorclaw?" Toph added, confused.

"Hardhead?" Sokka scratched his head.

The cards flashed. Ryuki had summoned Hardhead, Wildcat, and Razorclaw. Katara and Sokka gasped in shock at the three beasts and approached them cautiously.

"Amazing," Katara said in awe.

"But are they friendly?" Sokka asked uncertainly.

"They are," Toph confirmed. "It's just a feeling, but they don't mean us harm."

"They don't," Ryuki added confidently. "You guys can ride them while I go look for Aang-san. Don't worry, they'll respond to you, they can understand human speech."

"You don't say…" Sokka said, not entirely convinced.

"Find him and bring him back, okay?" Katara pleaded to Ryuki, holding his hand.

"Hai," Ryuki nodded before he took off after Aang, leaving a trail of flames.

((You're worried about him, aren't you?)) asked Yaminekoryu in Ryuki's mind.

((Must you ask?)) Ryuki answered back. ((He's my friend, of course I worry.))

((There was a lot of anger in him and also sadness. You could see it in his eyes.))

((I just hope he doesn't do anything crazy.))

* * *

"Appa! Appa!" Aang continued to call but he received no answer. He continued to look high up in the air. 

"I knew I'd find you sooner or later," Ryuki said as he flew up next to Aang. The young Avatar frowned.

"What do you want?" Aang questioned.

"Looking for you," Ryuki answered.

"Well, now you've found me, now get lost!" Aang snapped rudely.

"Aang, listen I know how you're feeling right now," Ryuki said.

"No you don't! You don't know what it's like to lose a good friend!"

"Yes I have!" Ryuki shot back angrily, surprising Aang a bit. "Gomen," he apologized. "Listen, I'm trying to look for Dragonzer too, maybe if we stick together, we can help one another and find them faster, okay?"

Aang reluctantly nodded. He then glided down and blew on the Bison whistle before landing on a dune. "Appa! Appa!" He received no answer and stared across the horizon. "No? NO!" He slammed his staff angrily on the ground, creating a large mushroom cloud of sand. Ryuki was blinded and blown away a bit but remained where he was. He landed down to see Aang crying in frustration.

'_He's only 12 years old and he's lost his entire civilization, has the fate of the world on his shoulders, and just lost his dearest friend,_' Ryuki thought sadly. Aang reminded Ryuki of himself.

"Come on," Ryuki said to Aang, "You're dehydrated right now." He created a cold glass of water. "Here, drink it."

"No," Aang refused but then had the cold liquid poured over him. "HEY!"

Ryuki glared, "That wasn't a request, Aang-san. How would Appa feel now if you killed yourself looking for him? Now, drink up!"

Aang took the second ice cup and drank it, reluctantly and sighed.

"Come on, let's go find the others. They're probably looking for us." Ryuki summoned Dragblacker and the black dragon growled hungrily at Aang. "No, Dragblacker! He's not food!" He then turned to Aang, "Hop on, Aang. You need to rest yourself."

* * *

A shadow passed overhead of Katara, Toph, Sokka and Momo. The large black dragon landed, much to Katara's fright but she calmed down when she saw Aang and Ryuki. Aang hopped off and kneeled. Katara slowly approached him as he did. 

Katara said sympathetically, "I'm sorry, Aang. I know it's hard for you right now, but we need to focus on getting out of here."

"What's the difference," Aang said hopelessly, "We won't survive here without Appa, we all know it."

((He's even more depressing than that Raven girl)) Ifrit said in Ryuki's mind but was promptly silenced by his host. Ryuki drew Dragblacker back into its card.

"Come on, Aang!" Katara said, "We can get through this if we work together. Right, Toph?"

"As far as I can tell," the young Earthbender replied, "We're trapped in a bowl of sand pudding. I've got nothing."

"Any ideas, Ryuki?" Katara asked their Zodiac Knight companion.

"We could ride on Dragblacker, but he can only carry so many people for so long. Our only hope is to ride Wildcat, Hardhead and Razorclaw out of here and hope for the best." Ryuki bowed, "Gomen nasai, Katara-san."

"Sokka, any ideas on how to find Ba Sing Se?" Katara asked her intoxicated brother. Ryuki blinked as he saw the look on Sokka's face as he pointed upwards.

"Why don't we ask the circle birds?" Sokka spoke in a daze.

Katara and Ryuki looked up and the Knight asked, "What are those things?"

Katara looked left and right and said, quickly, "Ugh? We're getting out of this desert, and we're going to do it together. We can do this. We have to." Katara got on Razorclaw and pulled Aang on behind her. Ryuki helped Toph onto Hardhead and then went and helped slung Sokka over Wilcat and got on the tiger with Momo on Wildcat's head. The group then made their way across the desert, riding on the Zodiac Beasts.

* * *

Ryuki had received an explanation about Sokka's condition and shook his head. Sokka was high on cactus juice. Great…just great… 

Katara suggested, "I think we should stop for the night." The three Beasts stop and the group get off them

"Is there any more water?" Toph asked

"Here," replied Katara. "Everyone can have a little drink and if we run out, then Ryuki can make some more with his powers." Katara opened her water flask and bended out an orb of water. Momo leapt at the water and tried to drink it, causing it to fall to the sand below. Sokka panicked and scrambled towards the wet spot in the sand.

Sokka shouted melodramatically, "Momo, no! You've killed us all!"

Katara assured him, "No, he hasn't." Katara placed her hand over the moist sand and bended the water out of it.

Sokka said, relieved. "Oh, right, Bending." Katara bended the water back into the flask and gave it to Toph. "Sokka, let me see the things you got from the library."

Sokka reeled back and clutched his bag full of scrolls. Offended, Sokka yelled, "What!? I didn't steal anything! Who told you that?" He then pointed an accusing finger at Momo. "It was you! You ratted me out!"

"Sokka, I was there," Katara said as she took Sokka's bag.

Aang said pessimistically, "It doesn't matter. None of those will tell us where Appa is."

Katara pulled out one of the scrolls and unrolled it, revealing a star map. Ryuki observed it over her shoulder.

"No, but we can find out which way Ba Sing Se is. We can use the stars to guide us. That way we can travel at night when it's cool and rest during the day." Katara sighed. "Just try to get some sleep. We'll start again in a few hours."

"I'll make the fire," Ryuki volunteered, '_And keep an eye on Aang and Sokka…_'

Everyone was soon fast asleep, all but Aang who was still miserable without Appa. Ryuki opted to give the young Airbender his space and watch over everyone. He had called Wildcat, Razorclaw and Hardhead into their cards to allow them to rest as well.

Ryuki could barely keep himself awake. Too much had happened. His eyes grew heavy and soon closed before he dozed off to sleep.

* * *

Ryuki found himself floating in a dark abyss and then he was in water. He spluttered as his head got out of the water and then he saw Titans Tower. 

"I'm…home…" Ryuki said as he stepped out of the water and onto the shore. He kneeled down, smiling wide, "I never thought I'd be back here."

"Hey, Leo!" he heard a voice call and Ryuki turned to see Craig, standing in the water and then saw a huge wave coming up behind him. It was well over 15 feet tall!

"Craig!" Ryuki called as he ran after her. "Look out!" But the wave crashed down on both of them and the next thing Ryuki knew, he was underwater! He hated water! He was then shocked to find that he could breathe. He then saw Craig holding his hand out and Ryuki tried to swim after him, swinging his arms frantically. '_I knew I should've learnt how to swim!_'

"You could try standing," he heard a female voice speak and Ryuki did. Laughing in embarrassment, he turned to see Jinx, standing on the beach, waving at them. Ryuki waved back, smiling.

"Hey, Jinxy-chan!" Ryuki said happily as he ran over and hugged the girl. "I've missed you!"

"Ryuki..." Jinx said softly. "You have to go back…and fight…"

"Huh?" Ryuki spoke in confusion but then found himself in a dark void. "Nani!? Where am I? Jinx?" But Jinx was no longer there. Was this reality? A dream? Or a nightmare? Ryuki looked around curiously until he took a step forward. A bunch of doves flew off of the ground, which lit up. As soon as the doves all flew away, Ryuki saw that the floor was a stain-glass portrait of Aang and his friends. Ryuki pondered at the portrait.

"So much to do, so little time..." a bodiless voice said.

Ryuki looked around curiously and wide-eyed and asked, "Who- Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Take your time. Don't be afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?" the voice continued.

"Of course, I can." Ryuki said as he stepped forward.

As soon as Ryuki was at the center of the platform, three trapezoids appeared on different parts of the platform.

"Power sleeps within you." the bodiless voice said as a weapon appeared on each trapezoid. The weapon on the trapezoid to Ryuki's left was a shield that he recognized as Jawz's (Tazuka's) Shark Shield. The weapon on the trapezoid that was all the way to Ryuki's right was a familiar looking staff. It was Shadow's Cobra Staff. Ryuki then looked ahead of himself and saw a sword. It was Pluto's Dog Sword. These were the weapons of his friends.

"If you give it form, it will give you strength." the bodiless voice continued, "Choose well."

Ryuki thought for a minute, and then put his finger up and pointed to each of the weapons and after a moment, said, "I choose the sword!" He walked over to the sword and picked it up, looking curiously at it.

"The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction…" the bodiless voice explained, "Is this the power you seek?"

"Hai," Ryuki replied, nodding without hesitation.

"Your path is set," the bodiless voice said. The sword disappeared from Ami's hand.

"Chotto!" Ryuki shouted, "What was that all about?"

"Now, what will you give up in exchange?" the bodiless voice asked.

"I must give something up? Fair enough" Ryuki replied, "I'll give up the staff."

He walked over to the trapezoid where the staff was and picked the staff up.

"The power of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin," the bodiless voice explained, "You give up this power?"

"Hai, I'm not of a magic user anyway. That is more of Shadow's expertise," Ryuki replied. Then, the staff disappeared

"You've chosen the power of the warrior, you've given up the power of the mystic." The bodiless voice explained, "Is this the form you choose?"

"Hai." Ryuki answered.

The trapezoids sank into the ground and disappeared. Ryuki got back on the floor and saw that the floor began to shatter. Ryuki, again, fell down screaming. He soon came down slowly and then landed safely on another circular floor where there was a portrait of 4 people dressed in red costumes and wearing masks. The next thing he knew, the sword appeared in Ryuki's hand.

"You gained the power to fight," the bodiless voice said.

"Hai!" Ryuki exclaimed. He then swiped his sword in an attacking way.

"Alright! You've got it," the bodiless voice praised, "Use this power to protect yourself and others."

Suddenly, a group of dark creatures, 4 in total, rose up from the ground and surrounded Ryuki. They appeared as skeletal black demons with feathered wings and horns and thin tails. Ryuki knew immediately what they were: Horrors.

"There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong," the bodiless voice continued.

Ryuki swung his sword wildly as he ran at the Horrors, screaming. Every swipe Ryuki attempted, he killed the Horrors in no time. Then, a Horror came up behind Ami.

"Behind you!" the bodiless voice shouted. Ryuki quickly turned around to see another Horror. More of them appeared.

Ryuki continued to fight the shadows with his sword until they all died. A few survived and sank into the ground, making a dark void appear on the ground. This caused Ryuki to sink into the ground. He felt like she was sinking in quicksand. After that experience, Ryuki was laying on the ground, swinging his arms wildly as he screamed. He calmed down as soon as he looked around. He was on another platform. This one portrayed three hearts. There was a silhouette of a person in each heart. Ryuki then spotted a door at the end of the platform. Before Ryuki could touch the door, it began to open slowly, and an almost blinding light lured Ryuki in.

"Hold on," the bodiless voice said. "The door won't open just yet. First, tell me more about yourself."

"All right," Ryuki nodded.

"Ryuki, what are you afraid of?" the voice asked.

"Um…" Ryuki thought a bit. He was afraid of water, but maybe that wasn't what he was really afraid of nor was it the answer the voice wanted either. He then knew what he was going to say, "Becoming weak." If he was weak, how could he protect his friends?

"Is being weak really so bad?"

"How can I protect people if I'm weak!"

"Next question: What do you want out of life?"

Ryuki answered as he stared at his hand, remembering his status as an Orphenoch and Knight, "To live."

"Live? Is that all? Very well. Last question: What is most important to you?"

Ryuki smiled widely and answered, "Friendship!" with little hesitation.

"Friendship? Interesting." The voice repeated Ryuki's answers, "You're afraid of becoming weak, you want to live and friendship is important to you. Your adventure will begin at dawn. As long as the sun shines brightly, your journey will be a pleasant one."

"Hai! Arigatou!"

"The day you open the door is both very near but also very far away."

"Huh?" Ryuki tilted his head in confusion.

Ryuki then appeared on a circular floor depicting a group of people in matching space suits. One looked human, another was a big red alien, another was a female humanoid with blue skin and the last one was a robot. Ryuki approached a light and then the Horrors appeared again. Narrowing his eyes, Ryuki quickly defeated them.

After that, a light revealed a flight of stairs. Ryuki went up the stairs and found himself on a platform depicting two humanoid rabbits, a humanoid coyote, a humanoid duck, a humanoid Tasmanian Devil, a and a humanoid road runner standing in front of a beautiful woman with long golden hair with a golden aura. The first 6 figures were dressed in matching black suits of some kind.

Ryuki saw the light ripped through the void and thought that was the way out of this insane dream.

"The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes," the bodiless voice warned.

"Nani?" Ryuki asked and then his shadow lengthened before something rose up from it. The figure was clad in pure black armor, similar to Ryuki's Draco armor. The only difference was there was armor plating covering the arms and legs and there was a pair of antennae on the front of the helmet. Also, the eyes under the faceplate was red and attached to the figure's belt was…

"The Hyper Inzecter!" Ryuki gasped in shock.

"Bur do not be afraid…and do not forget," the voice advised. "That you have strength and light within you."

Ryuki drew his deck out of his pocket, thanking the gods it was still there and summoned his belt before sliding it in. His armor encased him and he gripped his sword. He charged at the doppelganger but it moved to the side to elbow Draco in the back. Draco picked himself up and swung the sword, only for it to be blocked and then he was kicked across the floor. He got back up again and growled before sending fireballs flying, but his double dodged each one before appearing in front of Draco and sent him flying with a powerful punch.

"How can I win?" Draco questioned as he stared at his sword…suddenly, it glowed and then reformed into a weapon, resembling a key. "What is this?" His double came at him and without thinking, he stabbed the weapon into its chest. The double staggered back, in pain, before exploding.

"Yatta!" Draco cheered.

"Excellent, you are worthy of being the Keyblade Master!" the voice congratulated.

"A 'key…blade'?" Draco pondered, staring down at the weapon in his hand. "Is that what this is?" A door appeared before him.

"Use that to open the door and do not forget that you have the mightiest weapon of all."

"Well, this **is** a key," Draco said before stepping towards the door. He pointed the Keyblade at the door and it then swung open, engulfing Draco in bright light. He screamed in shock as he was blinded.

Ryuki/Draco vanished but then Libra appeared and said, "And don't forget that you will open the Door to the Light and close the Door to the Darkness."

* * *

Ryuki was shaken awake and yawned before he mumbled groggily, "What a strange dream…A key…blade?" He then saw Katara wake up the others. "Katara-san? Nani?" 

"Come on, get up, we need to go," she said as she continued to rouse everyone awake. Ryuki just couldn't keep himself from thinking about that dream.

* * *

Kat jerked awake as well and sat up, sweating and panting hard. She was in the room she was sharing with Ty Lee, Azula and Mai in an inn they were staying in for the night. She just had a nightmare. She stared at her hand and said, "A Living Gate…?" She then forced herself calm and went back to sleep, not noticing that her shadow was changing into a demonic shape before turning back to normal. They had a long day tomorrow...Azula had been telling about some sort of drill and a place called Ba Sing Se.

* * *

A/N: I bet you know what's going to be happening soon…and hope you recognize some of the figures depicted on the platform. 


	10. Chapter 10

It'd been an exact one week since Draco's disappearance. The Z-Titans felt lost without Draco. After all the Z-Titans had been through, Draco was always the one to keep the team together and happy. This past week had been the hardest on Jinx most of all and all she wanted was to be in her Draco's arms again. Jinx was restless every night with worry of not knowing where he was. The other Z-Titans had problems coping as well; Mortuary was missing his best friend and hated not being able to be there to help him out.

Mortuary was riding his way back to the Tower after his weekly visit to his father. After telling his father the situation, Mortuary was given a device that Harker Tech had been working on for a while. The device was called Full Throttle and it was very similar to the Hyper Inzecter in terms of its base function. Mort was getting tired of waiting for Ant and Ryan to send a report so this time he would be taking action.

In his room, Mortuary examined the Full Throttle. It looked like a hi-tech arm brace and was colored white. Mortuary decided he was going to try it out outside of the Tower. When Mortuary entered the common room he saw Shadow sitting on the couch sitting on the couch watching soccer, or football as he called it. Mortuary decided to walk by without saying anything.

"Let me guess." Shadow spoke up "That's another brilliant invention from the hackers, I mean scientists of Harker Tech."

Mortuary gave Shadow a dumbfounded look and asked, "What are you talking about?"

Shadow tapped on his head and said, "I'm psychic, I know these things."

"You've been reading my mind?" Mortuary yelled in accusation.

Shadow stood up, "More like keeping track. Just because Draco trusts you, for some goody-goody reason, doesn't mean I trust you that much. You tried to kill him and first impressions are something that I take VERY seriously." Shadow said while giving him a stern look. "Pluto analyzed your Timefire system and it was quite a coincidence on how similar it was to our Clock Up system."

"Are you calling me a thief?" Mortuary accused.

"Believe me, there are other things I can call you," Shadow said as he stood up and glared at Mortuary with his red-on-black eyes.

Mortuary stared at the Full Throttle on his wrist and said, pointing at it and showing it to Shadow, "This thing might very well help us find Draco. I'm sick of waiting for Ant and Ryan to report in and tell us when or if they find him! We have to act NOW!"

Shadow eyes narrowed but then took in Mortuary's words. Despite their differences, he knew that Mortuary cared about the other Titans, like Terra and now Draco. He just didn't like the fact that Smart Brain's technology was being stolen and duplicated by a competitor. However…this was for a good cause…

"Alright, I'm willing to turn a blind eye," Shadow began, "But, on the condition that you find Draco and bring him back here, alive and in one piece. That includes you too. I don't want to lose anymore friends because of this."

Mortuary smiled, "You got it!"

"Oh and I'm hoping to have a duel with you soon," Shadow said as he showed his Zodiac Deck to Mortuary. "I never really got the chance to fight you as a Knight."

"You're on!" Mortuary then ran out the door, passing by Terra.

"Hey, Mort," Terra greeted.

"Later, Terra!" Mort greeted back.

She blinked in confusion and then asked Shadow, "Where is he off to?"

"Going after our wayward Dragon."

* * *

Mortuary was outside of the Tower, getting ready to test the Full Throttle and go look for his friend. He was ready activate the system until he saw Jinx approaching him.

"Jinx? What are you doing out here?" Mortuary asked with an eyebrow raised. Brimstone was there too.

"I'm here to thank you for taking this risk in finding Draco and to wish you good luck," Jinx answered, smiling

"Hey, you're my best friend's girl, what else can I do?" Mortuary said before he pressed a switch on the device and by doing so a bright light emitted from his body and formed the Throttle suit. The Throttle suit was a white bodysuit with blue gloves and boots and a gold belt and holster for the Death Buster. There was also a blue crest that ran down the middle with Harker tech's emblem on the chest.

Mortuary walked up to Jinx and put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes and said, "I won't come back without him." Mortuary then walked towards the water and shouted, "Face on!" which covered his head with a helmet that was white in the front with a black visor and the Harker Tech symbol on the forehead. The helmet was also blue on the back with two flashing red lights on the side when the helmet was activated.

Mortuary looked back at Jinx and gave her a reassuring nod before creating a portal and walking in.

"Please bring him back." Was all that Jinx said as she watched Mortuary vanish into the portal. One of Pluto's spy bots had been watching and relayed the image back to Pluto who was analyzing Mortuary's new gear. Shadow was with the Dog Knight in his lab.

"What have you learnt?" Shadow asked.

"It'll take me about an hour to finish my analysis," Pluto reported. "I'll tell you when I'm done."

* * *

Sokka drowsily woke up after being roused awake while Toph sat up awake as well, smacking her lips.

"Yesterday my mouth tasted like mud," the Blind Bandit said, "Now it just tastes like sand. I never thought I'd miss the taste of mud so much."

Katara went over to wake up Aang. However, he was already awake before she could even touch him. He told her, "I'm awake. I couldn't sleep." Ryuki frowned. Aang depression over losing Appa was getting worse.

"Well, we need to keep moving if we want to get out of this sandpit," Katara told everyone.

Aang and Katara suddenly spot something in the sky and Ryuki looked up as well to see large bison-shaped object fly past the moon.

"Appa!" Aang cried out joyfully, with a smile that Ryuki had missed.

Sokka said something, still under the influence of cactus juice, "Appa? Why would Princess Yue need him? She's the moon! She flies by herself!"

We then realized it had only been a cloud.

"It's just a cloud," Katara said sadly. "Come on, let's keep moving." She looked at her water pouch. They were running low.

"Here, let me," Ryuki offered and Katara handed him the water pouch. He combined his ice and fire powers to fill it up with water before handing it over to Katara.

"Thanks."

"Aang-san, let's go," Ryuki said as everyone got going. Ryuki could see that Katara was trying to keep everyone together.

"Why can't you summon another one of those animals to help out?" Toph asked Ryuki and he shook his head.

He told her. "In this world, I have to use my own energy and Dragonzer's to keep them materialized. In my own world, they just draw power from the Mirror Dimension. I have to wait before I can do another summon. If I still had Dragonzer, this would be a whole lot easier."

Ryuki had told them about the Mirror Dimension. Too bad it didn't exist here. It would've made it easy for them to travel out of this desert.

Katara began to read the star map, leading the group. After a few moments of walking, Toph suddenly tripped and fell. She spat out some sand and grumbled. She rubbed her stubbed foot. Next to her was a wooden object, sticking out of the sand.

"Ow! Crud! I am sick of not being able to feel where I'm going!" she complained. "And what idiot buries a boat in the middle of the desert?"

"A boat?" Ryuki asked.

"Believe me, I kicked it hard enough to feel plenty of vibrations," Toph confirmed.

Sokka sighed as Aang stepped forward and swung his staff in a wide horizontal arc, kicking up sand. When it cleared, a sand glider like the one used by the Sandbenders was revealed.

Katara exclaimed happily, "It's one of the gliders the Sandbenders use! And look! It's got some kind of compass on it! I bet it can point us out of here! Aang, you can bend a breeze so we can sail it. We're going to make it!"

Everyone turned to see Sokka laughing as he buried Momo in a pile of sand. He turned towards the others and gave two thumbs up as well as a large grin.

"Katara-san, your optimism is inspirational," Ryuki quipped. He actually did mean it but they would need a miracle to get out of this desert, a big one.

After Ryuki dug up the glider using his telekinesis, they were able to get it to work and pretty soon were seen racing through the desert on their newly acquired vehicle. Aang was driving it forwards by bending powerful gusts of air into the sail. Katara was standing in the upper platform and navigating using the compass and star map.

Katara reported, "The needle on this compass doesn't seem to be pointing north according to my charts."

Sokka spoke dreamily, "Take it easy little lady. I'm sure the sand folks who built this baby know how to get around here."

Yaminekoryu began speaking as his spectral form appeared beside Ryuki. "_Oi, Aibou, what's wrong with you?_"

((Nothing)) Ryuki replied telepathically. He would've been seen as crazy if he began talking to himself now.

"_No way it's nothing_!" Yaminekoryu snapped. "_It was that dream, wasn't it_?"

Ryuki mentally nodded.

"_Your father used to have dreams that were actually premonitions. Maybe since you have the Power of Pisces, it could be a vision_."

Ryuki took in Yaminekoruyu's words. Maybe he was right. It could've been a vision, but what about that Keyblade thing?

Sokka was sitting behind Katara, holding Momo by the tail as the Water Tribe girl gasped. She was looking at a giant rock up in the distance.

"That's what's the compass is pointing to!" she cried in realization. "That giant rock! It must be the magnetic center of the desert."

Toph looked happy, "A rock? Yes! Let's go!"

"Maybe we'll be able to find someone that can help us," said Ryuki.

Aang muttered darkly, "Maybe we'll find some Sandbenders." The tone of voice worried Ryuki.

They finally reached and set foot at the rock. It was now dawn and the sunlight brightened part of the sky.

"Ahhh…" Toph sighed. "Finally, solid ground!" She lay flat against the surface of the rock, moving her legs back and forth to create an earth angel. Ryuki chuckled and recorded this with his DRA-Cam.

Several strange, round caves could be seen. The group entered one of them. Covered all around the cave's surface was a yellow, gooey substance that looks like honey.

Sokka was breathing deeply as he held his head, "I think my head is starting to get clear from that cactus juice." He pointed on the walls, "And look!" Sokka grabbed some of the yellow substance and so did Momo and they both put it in their mouths. Sokka then spat it out and made gagging noises. "Ugh, tastes like rotten penguin meat!" He held his head, feeling nauseous, "Awww…I feel woozy."

Katara looked irritated at him, "You've been hallucinating on cactus juice all day and then just lick something off the wall?" Ryuki chuckled in amusement.

"I have a natural curiosity," he replied.

"I don't think this is a normal cave, guys," Toph said. "It feels like it was carved by something."

"Yeah," Aang agreed, "Look at the shape."

Ryuki then froze and cupped his ear, "Do you all hear something?"

"There's something buzzing in there!" Toph yelled, "Something that's coming right at us!"

The group quickly ran out of the cave as the buzzard wasps came flying out. Apparently, the rock was actually a hive for these creatures.

"I guessed we aren't welcomed," Ryuki said as he ducked when a buzzard wasp came at him. He froze it in ice.

The buzzard wasps began screeching as they flew around the group and from their behavior they were anything but friendly. Aang swung his staff and blew one back with a gust of air. A buzzard wasp landed near Toph. Sensing it, she bended a pillar of rock out of the ground, sending it flying. Another buzzard wasp landed between the two of them and she stomped on the ground. A boulder popped into the air. She lifted it and smashed it down, inches away from Sokka.

"What are you doing!?" Sokka cried. "That rock nearly crushed me!"

"Sorry, I can't tell them when they're in the air." A buzzard wasp flew past them.

"I got this one!" Sokka was swinging his machete blindly back and forth.

Ryuki told him, "Sokka-san, there's nothing there." Sokka realized that he had been right and he had only been attacking air.

"I guess my head isn't as clear as I thought." A buzzard wasp flew towards Sokka from behind but Ryuki quickly dealt with it as he shot it down with his DRA-Blaster. The gun was set to stun. He aimed up and around and kept shooting at the attacking swarm, protecting his friends. He also sent several rocks flying, knocking them down. Katara was using her water whips to smack them away.

"We have to get out of here. I'm running out of water to bend!" Katara told them. Ryuki holstered his DRA-Blaster and provided ice for Katara to use for her bending. "Thanks!"

Momo was crouching on the ground behind Aang and Katara. He was suddenly snatched by a buzzard wasp. Aang watched as the buzzard wasp flew towards the rising sun with the winged lemur.

"Momo!" Aang shouted. "I'm not losing anyone else out here." Aang opened his glider and flew after the buzzard wasp.

"Everyone, come together!" he told them and they regrouped with him. Ryuki looked down at his deck and summoned his belt, sliding it into his belt. "Henshin!"

In a flash of light, Ryuki was clad in armor, but it wasn't the same suit of armor they had seen him in before. It was black with a white chestplate, matching white gauntlets and boots and worn over a black bodysuit. The helmet was also rounded, black and simplistic with a silver mouthpiece and round white eyes. His card reader was a panel attached to his left forearm.

"Blank Form?" Ryuki said as he looked at his hands and groaned, "Alright, this is not good." He drew his gun again and fired at the buzzard wasps, providing cover for the others.

"Come on! We're going down!" Katara ordered.

Buzzard wasps were flying everywhere as Ryuki continuously shot them down. Sokka, Katara, Ryuki and Toph were making their way down on a narrow ledge. Katara placed her hands on Toph's shoulders and turned her to face the buzzard wasps.

Katara instructed, "Toph, shoot a rock right there. Fire!"

Toph stomped down and popped a cluster of rocks into the air before shooting them forward with a double palm strike. The rocks made a direct hit with the buzzard wasp.

Sokka cheered, "Yeah! You got it! She got it, right?"

Katara nodded, "Yes, now let's move." She then asked Ryuki. "What happened to your armor? It didn't look like this before."

"Because I don't have Dragonzer, I turned back to this," he answered. "Those things are still coming. We have to fight our way out of here!"

* * *

Aang was chasing the buzzard wasp that had captured Momo. He flew underneath it and rolled over, bending a gust of wind with a strong kick that forced the buzzard wasp to let go of Momo. Momo began to fall, but quickly gained control and flew next to Aang. Aang glared as the buzzard wasp that was trying to fly away. He glided close to the ground and closed his glider. Still flying forward, Aang swung his staff down and shoot a powerful blade of air that split the sand. The buzzard wasp, now just a black dot against the sun, is hit by the attack, cutting it in two. It fell from the air and hit the sand with a dull thud. Aang stared coldly and walked back to the giant rock. Momo followed, but was clearly frightened by Aang's merciless act.

* * *

Katara, Ryuki, Sokka and Toph were nearing the bottom. Katara shouted, "On your left!"

Toph smacked a rock and shot it at another buzzard wasp, which shrieked on impact. Ryuki aimed and shot at them continuously, taking more of them down. The buzzard wasps were hovering around the foot of the rock and the sand glider. Suddenly, gigantic pillars of sand burst upwards, scaring off the swarm of buzzard wasps. They flew upwards and back to their hive. Sokka, Katara, and Toph, all shield their eyes. Ryuki didn't need to since he was wearing his helmet. When they open their eyes, several Sandbenders were surrounding them. Aang landed and the group got themselves ready to face the Sandbender. Ryuki holstered his gun and gripped his fists, his eyes narrowing under his helmet.

The leader of the Sandbenders, a bald man with a beard confronted Aang, Ryuki, Katara, Sokka and Toph. His name was Sha-Mo.

Sha-Mo demanded, "What are you doing in our land with a Sandbender sailer?" He then added, "From the looks of it, you stole it from the Hami tribe. "

Katara answered, "We found the sailer abandoned in the desert. We're traveling with the Avatar. Our bison was stolen and we have to get to Ba Sing Se."

A younger Sandbender next to the leader stepped forward and raises his voice and clenched his fist.

The Sandbender said, "You dare accuse our people of theft while you ride in on a stolen sand sailer?"

"Excuse me, when did we accuse you of stealing anything?" Ryuki inquired. "We didn't say you stole it, we just said it was stolen. Why would you think we were talking about you?"

The Sandbender froze and then growled, "You should show your face when speaking to someone." Toph's eyes narrowed when she heard the young Sandbender's voice.

Sha-Mo scolded, "Quiet, Gashuin. He is right. No one accused our people of anything. If what they say is true, we must give them hospitality."

Gashuin apologized, "Sorry, father."

Toph's eyes widened upon realization of who the young Sandbender was.

Toph said, "I recognize the son's voice. He's the one that stole Appa."

Katara asked, "Are you sure?"

"I never forget a voice."

Aang took several steps towards the Sandbenders and brandished his staff threateningly. Ryuki got ready to intervene if this suddenly turned violent and judging by the angry Aura he was sensing from Aang, it was going to get VERY violent.

Aang accused angrily, "You stole Appa! Where is he? What did you do to him?"

Gashuin cried out, "They're lying! They're the thieves!"

Aang swung his staff down and obliterated a sand sailer with a blast of air.

Aang growled, "Where is my bison?" He shouted, "You tell me where he is now!"

The Sandbenders watched in shock as Aang swung the end of his staff upward and destroyed another sand sailer.

Sha-Mo said to Gashuin, "What did you do?"

Gashuin stammered in fear, "I-It wasn't me!"

Toph added, "You said to put a muzzle on him!"

Aang was enraged, "You muzzled Appa!?"

Ryuki's green eyes widened under his helmet. He could feel Aang's aura rising to terrifying proportions. The only thing he had felt that was close to being this powerful was Trigon's own aura...or when Shadow or Raven got mad.

"Aang-san...?" Ryuki croaked. "What's happening to him?"

"He's entering the Avatar State!" Katara answered in fear.

Aang's eyes and tattoos glow as he began to enter the Avatar State. He twirled his staff around and demolished one of the few remaining sand sailers.

Gashuin apologized in terror at Aang's power, "I'm sorry! I didn't know that it belonged to the Avatar!"

Aang spoke in an unearthly voice, "Tell me where Appa is!"

Gashuin answered, frightened, "I traded him! To some merchants! He's probably in Ba Sing Se by now! They were going to sell him there! Please! We'll escort you out of the desert! We'll help however we can!"

The air around Aang slowly began to pick up and spin around Aang as he fully entered the Avatar State, pulling in sand and creating a small tornado.

"Aang-san! Stop!" Draco shouted.

"Just get out of here! Run!" Sokka shouted.

Sokka grabbed Toph by the shoulders and pulled her away from Aang. Toph, Sokka, Momo and the Sandbenders all flee for their lives. Katara and Ryuki, however, stay and face the danger. The sand tornado grows larger and spreads quickly as Aang slowly lifted from the ground. Katara and Ryuki made their way through the fierce wind and each grab Aang's wrists. He looked down at them with anger and hate, but was only met with Katara's sad expression. Katara and Ryuki brought Aang back to the ground and the girl hugged him by the shoulders. Ryuki stepped back to give them their privacy, relieves that it was all over. Sokka and Toph brought their hands down from shielding themselves as the wind became less violent. Tears were streaming from Aang's glowing eyes, and Katara was doing her best not to let go of him. The wind finally died down. Aang left the Avatar State and let his head rest against Katara. The screen fades to white.

Ryuki's armor vanished and he let out a sigh. Seeing the touching scene reminded him of himself. Whenever he would go berserk and enter his Orphenoch form, Jinx was the only person who was able to calm him down and bring him back. She was his anchor as Katara was to Aang. Ryuki's eyes narrowed at the Sandbenders as he stepped over to Gashuin and lifted him by the shirt. Seeing Ryuki's glowing red eyes caused the Sandbender to cringe in fear.

"There was a red dragon with the Bison. What happened to him?" Ryuki demanded, "And don't try to lie to me, I'll know if you are."

Gashuin answered, "That thing was ferocious so we had to reign it in and tie its jaw close. It tried to eat us!"

"Did you sell him?" Ryuki asked again, his free hand starting to ignite with fire. Gashuin nodded.

"Yes, but to another group merchants!" Ryuki dropped Gashuin. He was tempted to feed him to Dragblacker. Ryuki walked over to his friends.

"Is he going to be okay, Katara-san?" Ryuki asked regarding Aang.

"He will be, he's just a little tired," she told him.

Ryuki drew out a card and summoned Dragblacker. The black dragon roared at the Sandbenders. A few of them fainted at the sight of the red-eyed-black dragon.

"Let's get out of here," Ryuki said and they all hopped upon the black dragon.

"Why couldn't we have done this before?" Sokka asked as he got on.

"I told you, remember?" Ryuki said.

"Really?" Sokka scratched his head. "When?"

Ryuki shook his head and took hold of Dragblacker's horns. "Let's go."

Katara held onto Aang as he wouldn't let go of him. Exhausted, he fell asleep in her arms. They then flew off.

* * *

"Alright, let's move," Ant said as he and Ryan left the village after restocking.

"You think we'll be able to find Ryuki?" Ryan asked.

"Aunt Wu said so, didn't she?" Ant answered, "She told me that if I kept searching, I'd find what I was looking for."

"That is if the Hyper Inzecter and Ryuki are in the same place," Ryan added.

"Well, the largest city in the Earth Kingdom is Ba Sing Se. If we move now, we can get on a ferry headed there."

"So, where are we headed, Azula-hime-sama?" Kat asked Azula as they left the village. (Hime means princess. Kat had opted to call Azula this)

"Ba Sing Se," the princess replied, savouring the words. That would not be its name for long.

"Hey, Kat, what's wrong? You're even gloomier than Mai!" Ty Lee said as she skipped beside the Cat Knight. Mai frowned.

"Just thinking about what Aunt Wu told me," Kat said.

"What was it? Was it about love?" Ty Lee inquired eagerly.

"Nothing important," Kat forced a smile but then she thought back to what she had been told, '_Darkness? My future is to drown in darkness AND bring it forth? What is that supposed to mean?_'

As the quartet of girls left the village, dark creature rose up from their shadows but slowly vanished again.

* * *

A/N: Everyone is headed to Ba Sing Se. Will they all reach it in time? Well, just wait for the next chapter. And what about Mortuary? Will he meet up with Ryuki? Stay tune for the next chapter. Also, Mort picked up a little stowaway. Zombi138 helped with the intro, btw.


	11. Chapter 11

Rose sobbed into her pillow. The week had not only been painful for her but also for Cathy, Kat's adopted daughter. The little girl had grown another year since the week and missed her mama terribly. Slade, although never showed it, was worried as well. Apparently, Kat was the glue that kept everyone together.

Jasmine and Minx, Kat's pet cats, the latter being a present from her brother, curled up on Kat's bed. Their mistress was gone and they were incredible unhappy. Cathy lay with them, crying as well.

* * *

It was afternoon when Dragblacker landed outside of a village. After hours of flying, the group had gotten out of the desert. Toph leapt off Dragblacker and kissed the ground, relieved to be on solid land again. Aang had not let go of Katara the entire time and the girl comforted him as he rested in her embrace.

"Okay, why couldn't we just fly straight to Ba Sing Se?" Sokka complained, "I mean we got a ride already!" He was referring to Dragblacker.

"Sokka-san," Ryuki began, "I've explained this to you. I can only keep my monsters summoned for so long since it drains my energy. It was lucky enough that Dragblacker here was able to fly us out of the desert before I even passed out." He panted.

"You okay?" Toph asked, hearing the ragged breathing.

"I just need to rest and regain my strength. Summoning takes a lot out of me," he replied before pulling Dragblacker back into its card. "Also, since we lost Appa, who also had our supplied strapped onto his saddle, we need to get more. That village looks like a good place to restock."

"Okay," Sokka nodded, "I was getting hungry anyway."

"Is food all you think about?" Toph asked.

"There's girls," he answered.

"Boys…" Toph rolled her eyes.

"Aang, wake up," Katara roused the airbender awake. Aang yawned and opened his eyes. They were dried up tears on his face.

"Where are we?" Aang asked.

"Outside of another village," Sokka replied as Momo landed on his head and observed said village. "Ryuki thought it would be a good idea to restock and rest."

Aang nodded in agreement. He could not argue; too tired. Katara helped him stand on his feet as she held his hand before walking with the others towards the village.

As they entered, Katara noticed something peculiar as the village folk looked at them suspiciously. Some even closed their windows as they passed by houses.

"Okay, is it just me, or are we being watched?" Katara asked.

"I'm getting a weird vibe too," added Ryuki.

"What weird vibe?" Sokka asked, "Just looks like a peaceful village to me."

"Too peaceful," Toph said. "It's the middle of the afternoon. Where are the children?"

"You're right. Kids are usually seen playing this time of day and I barely see any kids here," Sokka spoke in agreement.

"We better find someplace to stay for the day and restock on food, medicine and bandages as well as get new sleeping bags," Ryuki listed.

"But how are we going to get them?" Sokka asked. "Our stuff, along with Appa, were stolen."

At the mention of Appa, Aang frowned miserably. "Sokka!" Katara scolded.

"I think I still have some gold on me," Toph said.

"That is at least a good start," Ryuki said. "We better spend what we got wisely. We have to buy things moderately to survive from now on. So, let's split up." Ryuki assigned everyone a job, "Toph, you're with me. We're going to find an inn. Sokka, you get us some bandages and medicine. Katara and Aang, get us some food."

"Hey, who made you boss?" Sokka asked in defiance. Ryuki sighed.

"You got a plan, 'Idea-Man'?" Ryuki retorted with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay, maybe not at the moment and…Okay, fine!" Sokka walked away.

They then split up, promising to meet up again in a few hours.

* * *

"No rooms!"

"No vacancies!"

"We're full!"

"None! Go away!"

* * *

"Well, that was successful," Toph spoke sarcastically. "Nobody seems to have any rooms to give us."

"They were lying," Ryuki said with eyes narrowed, annoyed at all the innkeepers' rudeness and lack of courtesy. "Do they expect us to sleep in the streets?"

Ryuki then saw Sokka, Katara and Aang again, all of them empty handed. "Let me guess; they wouldn't sell you anything."

"Okay, something is up with this town!" cried out Sokka.

"They shut their doors when we came to buy something," Katara added. "How about you?"

"Every innkeeper refused us," Ryuki answered. "But I sensed a lot of fear coming from the people like they were scared of something and paranoia."

"They should be," a beggar spoke. He was clad in rags and sitting against a wall. "This village is cursed."

"What do you mean 'cursed'?" asked Aang.

"You must be new around here," the beggar spoke and then introduced himself, "Name's Old Man Guni. Oldest and poorest man in the Village of Huhn."

"Alright, so what's this about a curse?" asked Ryuki.

"It'll cost you," the beggar said, holding out his bowl.

"We are not paying you for information!" Sokka said with arms crossed but Ryuki handed him a gold coin. "Ryuki!"

"This might be important, Sokka-san," Ryuki replied. "So, what can you tell us, Guni-ojiisan?"

"A week ago, everyone was happy here. Children were out in the streets everyday, laughing and playing. Then, the children began to disappear, one by one. Slowly, the villagers grew distrustful of everyone around them and even strangers," Guni told them. "I've heard that a spirit has taken them."

"A spirit," Ryuki repeated.

"I tell you! This village is cursed! Run while you still can!" Guni exclaimed before he got up and limped away.

"Okay, that was freaky," Sokka spoke up. "Cursed? Come on! There are no such things as curses!"

"Not true, Sokka-san," Ryuki objected. "Curses are real. I've seen them at work and believe me some of them can be outright dangerous."

"Aang, when we came in, did you sense anything?" Katara asked.

"I never really paid attention, but I did feel a lot of negative energy floating around," Aang replied.

"Well, curses or not, we still have no place to sleep and it's getting dark," Sokka said, "And we can't camp out without supplies either."

"You really do know how to make us feel better, don't you?" Toph quipped sarcastically.

* * *

Later that night, an eerie melody began to sweep over the village, stirring young children awake and out of their beds.

* * *

Ryuki's eyes popped open as he suddenly sat up from where he was sleeping. The group was back at where they had landed earlier and was asleep with only blankets on them.

"What is that sound…?" Ryuki yawned but then realized that Aang was missing. He checked up on Toph's earth tent to see if she was there and found her gone too. Panicking, he quickly ran over to wake up his friends.

"Katara-san!" Ryuki shook her. "Sokka-san!" he shook Sokka awake too, who was muttering in his sleep.

"One at a time ladies…There's plenty of me to go around…" Sokka snored and Ryuki rolled his eyes. He then created some water and splashed Sokka with it, shocking him awake. "I'M UP! I'M UP!" Sokka screamed and it woke Katara up as well.

"Huh? What?" Katara said tiredly, rubbing her eyes and then realized Aang was gone. "Aang! Where's Aang?"

"He's gone and so is Toph-san," Ryuki answered. "I also heard something like a flute being played. Maybe it's this curse the beggar told us."

"Footprints," Sokka pointed out. There were two sets of footprints, Aang and Toph's obviously. "We better follow them," Sokka spoke seriously. "Maybe we can put an end to this 'curse' business.

Ryuki nodded in agreement. Katara was only worried about Aang and Toph.

They followed the footprints and then saw a number of children marching. They were a lot of them, ranging between the ages of 6 to 12. The children were walking into a cave where Ryuki was hearing the song.

"Do you hear that?" Ryuki asked.

"I don't hear anything," Sokka cupped his ear.

"Well, I do. Let's go."

The trio followed after the children and entered the cave. Ryuki ignited his hand to make a light and they gasped at what they saw.

Children, suspended in red cages and looking quite sickly. They looked skinny, only skin and bones and moaning.

"Ah, guests!" a male voice spoke up. The owner of the voice walked up to them. He was dressed in Earth Kingdom clothes, a green and yellow shirt with brown pants a straw hat and a flute in his hand.

Ryuki's eyes narrowed. There was a dark aura surrounding the man, an aura that Ryuki was familiar with when he fought a Horror alongside his cousin Saeji.

"Who are you?" Ryuki demanded.

"Piper," he replied, "Pied Piper, at your service," he bowed.

"What kind of a name is that?" Sokka laughed.

"Oh, you laugh at my name, well, laugh at this!" Piper snapped his fingers and a cage dropped down appeared around Sokka and Katara and then pulled them up. Ryuki leapt away from getting trapped

"Let them go!" Ryuki demanded angrily.

"In due time," Piper replied, lips curling in a smirk. "I only feed on little children and they're too old for me."

"Hey, I'm not too old!" Sokka cried out.

"Feed?" Katara questioned. "You eat them?"

"Not their flesh, but their life force. The energy of youth is so delicious," Piper grinned. "Children have so much delicious energy in them that it's wasted. I enjoy eating it bit by bit, savoring the energy."

"You're not human, are you?" Ryuki asked.

"Well, would I be if I ate the life of children? Your friends are here too and I can't believe I got the Avatar." He pointed up to the cage with Aang and Momo inside. "He'll be a feast." Piper licked his lips. Ryuki's anger flared up.

"FEED ON THIS!" Ryuki let out a roar and charged at Piper, but the man dodged to the side and hit him in the shoulder with his flute. Ryuki whirled around to punch him but the man blocked with his flute before kicking him back.

"Pitiful," Piper taunted. Ryuki was ready to use his fireballs and ice spikes but a cage levitated between Piper and him, one with a child inside. Piper intended to use the child as a shield.

"Coward…" Ryuki growled. Piper allowed the cage to float back up and then he spun his flute around. He attacked Ryuki who could only block in the confine spaces of the cave. He needed to do something and fast. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his deck, summoning his belt, much to Piper's surprise.

"Henshin!" Ryuki announced and slid in the deck, summoning his armor. Piper looked at him in confusion and sneered.

"Well, I should change as well," Piper said before he transformed. He changed into a demonic creature with black skin. He had longs arms with long fingers, tipped with equally long claws. On his head were extra arms with mouths that had sharp teeth in the palms. The face, resembling a skull, held three evil looking red eyes.

"A Horror," Ryuki identified before one of the arms shot out and grabbed him by the throat, pinning him against the wall.

"Wow, you are smart," the Horror said, grinning.

The Horror kept his hold on Ryuki's throat, crushing it. Luckily, the bodysuit was able to protect him from the pressure, but he was slowly running out of air. He clenched his fist as the Horror got in his face.

"Your life force will make a great appetizer before I go and finish off your friends," Pied Piper said gleefully. Ryuki's eyes wandered over to his friends who were still suspended in those red metal cages. He then glared at the Horror.

"Eat…" he raised up his hand, "THIS!" with a roar he slammed his palm into the Horror's chest. He was shocked to see a light coming from Ryuki's hand as he was pushed away by a magical force.

"WHAT!?" the Horror exclaimed in confusion and he wasn't the only one.

Clutched in Draco's hand was a large silver key with a golden handle and guard. Dangling from the back was a keychain that had a tag that looked like the letter 'T'. He just stared at as did the others.

"What is that thing?" Sokka asked.

"It looks like a sword," said Aang.

"More like a key," added Katara.

"No…" Ryuki said slowly, nodding, knowing what it was, "A Keyblade."

The Horror charged at Ryuki but the black and white armored Knight blocked his swipe with his new weapon before he swung it and hit the Horror on the side of the head with it. The Horror grunted in pain but then screamed in pain as Ryuki began to pummel him with the Keyblade, swinging it around like an expert.

"Yeah, get him!" Sokka cheered.

The Horror then shot the claws on the top of his head and they latched onto Ryuki's faceplate. The mouths in the palms opened to suck in his energy. Ryuki grabbed at them, trying to pull them away, but they just wouldn't budge. "Let go!" Ryuki shouted. "I said let me go!"

"No way! I'm going to suck you dry!" the Horror did as he said and Ryuki could feel his life force leaving his body.

'_Damn, I'm gonna die_,' Ryuki thought in his mind but then another voice spoke up.

"_No way, Aibou!_" Yaminekoryu said, "_No way!_"

((Yaminekoryu?)) Ryuki spoke telepathically as the spectral demon appeared before him.

"_If you die, I die! Switch with me! I'll handle this bitch!_"

((But how?))

"_Just yell out…_"

Draco gripped his Keyblade tightly and shouted out, "SWORD DRIVE FORM!" A bright red flash was released by his body and the Horror pulled back his claws because of the burning pain.

"What is going on!?" he shouted. Aang and the others were thinking the same thing.

Ryuki's armor was beginning to change. The card reader morphed back into the familiar Dragauntlet while the crystal in the deck glowed red. Ryuki's torso armor turned red with a silver chestplate that held the emblem of a peach in the centre. This was followed by broad triangular red shoulder guards and his gauntlets and boots changing from white to red and silver. A red visor shaped like his old head-piece fell over his faceplate before splitting in half. The red Excel Streams appeared on his bodysuit. His Keyblade also changed, becoming blood red and more sword-like and serrated with a black handle and guard. The keychain also changed to have a tag that looked like a red peach. The Keyblade was named 'Red Peach'.

"Ready or not, here I come!" 'Ryuki' announced as he pointed at himself before he posed with the Keyblade on his shoulder. It wasn't his voice but the voice of both Ryuki and Yaminekoryu speaking as one.

"Who are you!?" the Horror demanded, "What are you!?"

"Kamen Rider Draco," was the answer he received. "And when I start, it's already the climax!"

The Horror attacked Draco with his claws but the Rider leapt over the attacks and then swung down with his Keyblade, slashing one of the arms off. The Horror roared in pain as he swiped at Draco but he easily dodged the Horror's attacks, like he was playing with him.

"Too slow! Hey, I'm over here! What, are you blind or something? What do you use those three eyes for?" Draco taunted as he continuously dodged Pied Piper's attacks.

"I'm going to enjoy breaking you to pieces!" the Horror yelled out.

Draco responded by drawing a card and sliding it into his Dragauntlet.

"Mighty Vent!" Energy flowed through the Excel Streams and into his Red Peach Keyblade.

"Then I will have to destroy you before you can do that," Draco clutched his Keyblade with both hands and announced, "Prepare for my ultimate attack! EXTREME SLASH!" He let go of his Keyblade and sent it flying at the Horror. He swung his arm and the Keyblade followed the direction, slashing the Horror in the chest. He swung his arm again and it once again slashed the Horror in the back with great force. "IT'S OVER!" Draco shouted out as he swung down, causing the Keyblade to slice Pied Piper down the middle before returning to its master's hand.

The Horror exploded as he was destroyed. There was no longer any trace of him. As soon as he was destroyed, the cages all disappeared and well…everyone fell down to the floor, but Draco cushioned them with telekinesis. Toph stepped over and 'stared' at Draco.

"You're not Ryuki, are you?" she asked.

"I am, but at the same time I am not," he answered before the armor shattered away and Ryuki let out a breath of relief. His Keyblade had also changed back into its default form. "What a rush," he said.

"We better get these kids home," Katara said, referring to the children that had been kept captive by the Horror.

"Well, everyone, follow me," Sokka led. "I want to get out of this cave too."

Ryuki looked longingly at his Keyblade and then back at Aang and Toph who were looking at him. Aang just asked, "How did you get that and how did you change?"

"It came to me in my dream," Ryuki replied, banishing the Keyblade. "Come on, let's get out of here."

* * *

With the children returned, the villagers celebrated and honored Aang, Ryuki, Katara, Sokka and Toph for saving them and allowed them to stay the night, thanking them for saving the children. They were given food and supplies as thanks for their courage. A celebration was held the very next day to honor Aang after they realized he was the Avatar and thought he had saved the children.

Sokka, enjoying a bowl of rice, then asked Ryuki, "Shouldn't you tell them what really happened?"

Ryuki sipped his drink and answered, "I don't need to take any credit. The children are safe and we have supplies and food."

"Now that's pretty selfless," Katara agreed.

"Do you think they'll give us money?" Sokka asked, earning glares, "What, it's an honest question."

Toph had t be told of what happened since she was pretty much in a trance during the whole fight. "So, this thing…wanted to eat us?"

"Hai," Ryuki nodded. "It was a Horror and all they do is eat humans."

"I'm trying to eat here," Sokka moaned. "I don't need to lose my appetite."

"Gomen."

Aang stepped over and joined his friends. "Well, we'll be heading off to Ba Sing Se after all this is done."

"What? Can't we stay longer?" Sokka whined.

"No, Aang-san is right," Ryuki said in agreement to Aang. "The sooner we get to Ba Sing Se, the sooner we can find Appa and maybe Dragonzer."

* * *

A/N: I just had to do this chapter! Draco finally uses the Keyblade and his first Drive Form. Whaddya think? Why are Horrors showing up here? Soon, you will know. Please, read and review and if you have any suggestions, put them in my forum or reviews, thank you.


	12. Chapter 12

Ryuki had explained to the others about what Horrors really were and they did not like the information.

"So…you actually killed a guy," Katara said, shaking with fear. Ryuki nodded in response.

"My cousin, Saeji-niisan, told me that once a person allows a Horror to possess them, they can no longer be considered human," Ryuki replied, sighing, "It took me a long time to wrap my mind around the idea, really, since the hosts still looked human but their souls had already been devoured. In a way, it would be considered mercy killing. I don't like it but somebody has to destroy Horrors or else more people will die."

"You weren't left with much of a choice, Ryuki," Aang said understandingly.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it. It's hard to forget they used to be human." He gazed down at the Keyblade he was holding, which he had named the 'Titan Key' according to the 'T' shaped keychain attached to it. He could summon it at will, be decided to keep it around for assurance. Aang had said it was amazing, along with Sokka and Katara. Toph was indifferent as she had touched it to feel what it looked like and only shrugged. To her, it was just a giant key.

"ALRIGHT, WHERE THE HECK ARE WE NOW!?" Sokka screamed as he led the group. Momo had been riding on his head before he flew off and landed on Ryuki, perching himself on the Knight's shoulder. The GAang were in a forest. They had walked all the way from the previous village and had ended up here.

"Sokka-san, may I see the map?" Ryuki offered and the Water Tribesman handed the map over to the Keyblade Master. Looking over the map, Ryuki quirked an eyebrow. "Ano…Sokka-san, I think you've been reading it the wrong way."

"What!?" Sokka exclaimed as he snatched the map away and looked at it, "No way! My navigation skills are perfect!" Ryuki carefully flipped the map over so that it was right side up, not upside down. "Oh." Katara glared and smacked Sokka up the head.

"You mean we've been walking around in circles because you were holding the map upside down!?" Katara snapped.

"Maybe the cactus juice hasn't really worn off," Sokka said, trying to make an excuse.

"Oh…blame the cactus juice! That excuse would've worked, like 2 days ago!" Katara shot back.

"Hey, I'm the warrior here!"

As the siblings bickered, Toph, Aang and Ryuki sat down on some rocks and sighed.

"Do they argue like this all the time?" Ryuki asked. Toph and Aang nodded. "Reminds me of Shadow and Pluto." Speaking about his old friends, how were they right now?

* * *

Shadow was looking over the results of Pluto's analysis with a stern expression on his face. This was just the evidence he needed to prove that Harker Tech had been stealing their ideas. Well, after they got Draco back, they would flush our the spy. He doubt Mortuary was the spy. Wouldn't be smart to be displaying that 'stolen' technology all around, the Timefire system that was coincidentally similar to Clock Up and now this Full Throttle system…Soon, very soon…

Suddenly, the room to his open swung open and Jinx ran in. She looked frantic. He turned to look at the pink haired witch.

"What's wrong?" he inquired.

"It's Brimstone," she answered. She then explained what happened.

* * *

After Katara and Sokka were done arguing, which took nearly 20 minutes, Ryuki was given the responsibility to lead them, much to Sokka's protests but Katara said, "Ryuki has his gear and a much better compass. He can get us to Ba Sing Se faster."

"Speaking of faster, why don't we fly on Dragblacker again?" Sokka asked.

"Because they draw power from me and I grow weaker if I keep summoning my monsters," Draco replied abruptly. He was holding the map open with both hands as his Keyblade was slung over his back. It just stuck there without a holster. Ryuki eyes were narrowed all around them. Ever since they stepped into this forest, he'd had an ominous feeling of evil washing over him. There was something here and it was anything but benevolent.

Momo's ears suddenly perked up as his eyes popped open. He looked around and whimpered before flying into Katara's arms. "What's wrong, Momo?"

"There's something here with us," Toph reported. "I can feel it. Stand perfectly still."

"I can hear it too," Ryuki added. Sokka drew his machete as Ryuki rolled up the map and put it in his belt before drawing the Titan's Key. His eyes narrowed as he got ready. The others tensed up for battle too. A nearby bush shook as if it was alive and Sokka pointed.

"There!" the warrior shouted. Suddenly, a black blur leapt out and tackled Ryuki to the ground. "It got Ryuki!" Ryuki was screaming as he thrashed around. "I'll save you, buddy!" Sokka yelled out a battle cry before he charged to attack the foul beast but then…

"Sokka-san, yamette (stop)!" Ryuki said as he sat up with the black creature in his hands. "It's okay."

"What…is…THAT…thing?" Sokka pointed.

"My pet," Ryuki smiled before he turned his attention towards the little black thing. "Brimstone, I've missed you!" The demonic pup barked happily before licking his master eagerly. "Hey! Cut that out!"

"Okay, so it's your pet," Sokka said, "But what is it?"

"_He _happens to be my pet dog from back home," Ryuki explained, putting Brimstone down. Katara and Aang looked scared at Brimstone's strange appearance. Brimstone looked like a small puppy, but with the absence of any fur and had red markings on its skin. It also had yellow eyes and small horns on its head along with a pointed tail. If one should ignore these abnormalities, Brimstone would look just like any normal dog.

"How did you get here, boy?" Ryuki asked. Sokka rolled his eyes.

"Oh, great, he's talking to dogs," Sokka said with a frown.

"Brimstone, meet Aang-san, Toph-san, Katara-san and Sokka-san. Oh, and not to mention Momo-chan," Ryuki told his pet dog and the demon puppy padded over to each of them. He sniffed Aang, Toph, Sokka (he growled at him for some reason), Momo (nearly attacked the lemur, thinking he was food) and finally Katara before he licked the girl's hand. Katara giggled.

"Aw…he's so cute," Katara picked the puppy up. "Aren't you, boy?" Brimstone barked in response.

Ryuki smiled. At least he knew he wasn't the only person in this world from his own world. But then, how _did _Brimstone get here. He looked up at the sky, even though it was being blocked by the trees, and said, "We better set up camp. It's going to get dark soon."

They did as told. Brimstone helped to dig up the fire pit as Toph collected the rocks to put around it and Sokka gathered the firewood. They also set up the tents and sleeping bags which were so generously rewarded to Aang and them for the Avatar's heroics. When the firewood had been placed in the pit, Ryuki snapped his fingers and they ignited. Now, they had a good campfire going on.

It was a good thing that they'd found a small stream so they had plenty of fish for dinner. Aang, being a vegetarian, ate some of the fruit and bread they had gotten from the villagers, another reward for the Avatar's heroics. Momo ate in his lap along with him.

After the fish had been cooked, Brimstone began feeding on a particularly large one as Ryuki enjoyed one as well. He gazed up into the night's sky. The stars were particularly bright. Thank goodness they found a good clearing to set up camp.

Ryuki's eyes then narrowed as his senses picked up something dark. There was something here in the forest with them.

"Hey, guys?" Ryuki began, "Didn't you notice that we haven't seen a single wild animal here? We didn't even see a bird or heard a cricket."

"You know, I noticed that too," Katara agreed. "We only found this fish and that was it."

"Me too," Toph answered, "Aside from the trees, and fish, the forest feels…dead."

Aang pondered. The forest was usually teaming with wildlife. Just why weren't there any animals here?

"Okay, you all are starting to creep me out here," Sokka said, unnerved by his friend's being so strange. Traveling with them for so long, he should've gotten used to this but then something even stranger would happen.

A vine, unnoticed by them, snaked across the ground and slithered over towards Brimstone. It moves so slow that it was barely noticeable, unless someone was looking for it. It then touched Brimstone…

And that was when Ryuki struck. Drawing the Keyblade, he slashed down on something behind Brimstone. The Kaiser puppy yelped in fear and immediately jumped into Katara's lap. "What's wrong, boy?" Katara asked, shocked by Ryuki's sudden action as well.

"What the heck are you doing!?" Sokka exclaimed, freaked out. Had Ryuki gone crazy. Ryuki picked up something wiggling. It was a worm, at least under the limited lighting, until all of them got a good look at it…It was a piece of vine and it was flailing around like a worm. Plants were not supposed to do that!

"I knew something was off about this place," Ryuki said before throwing the living vine into the fire. The vine actually made a screeching sound and this was followed by a ear-piercing shriek that echoed all around the forest around them.

"P-p-please t-t-tell me it was t-the w-w-wind," Sokka stuttered, freaked out by the shriek.

"I wish it was, Sokka," Aang said to him.

Brimstone turned aggressive and ran over to his master. He began growling, his eyes glowing bright yellow as the markings on his body glowed bright red. He bared his sharp teeth and snarled and growled.

"Everyone, keep your guard up," Ryuki instructed. Toph got ready along with Katara as Aang did with Sokka, the warrior holding a flaming torch. Ryuki's eyes narrowed as he attempted to pinpoint what it was and where it was.

At that very moment, IT struck!

It charged straight at them as a storm of vines came shooting out at the group. Aang acted quickly and blew them away as Toph sent them back with her Earthbending. Ryuki was slashing at the vines with his Keyblade, each slash cutting off the vines and making a screeching sound as they were cut off from the main body. Brimstone bit and clawed at them. The vines then withdrew themselves.

"Okay, this is just like the swamp again!" Sokka said, freaked out at what happened.

"Could it be forest spirits?" Katara asked.

"It doesn't feel like it," Aang replied.

"It's a spirit but not of the good kind," Ryuki said.

"And it's coming our way!" Toph shouted.

A large Venus flytrap appeared out of the ground and opened its jaws wide, revealing rows and rows of sharp teeth. It then dove at Sokka, who screamed. Ryuki grabbed it by its huge jaws, forcing them close. "You don't want to eat that! It's too sour!" Ryuki warned. He then pulled with all his super might and along with the large Venus flytrap, he pulled something else out of the ground.

The GAang screamed.

It was a large creature with black wood-like skin. The toes looked like plant roots. Its arms were large Venus flytraps connected, and on its back were a mess of vines. The face looked like a Japanese Noh mask and when it opened its mouth it let loose a shrill screeching sound, revealing rows of shark-like teeth.

'_Aibou, this thing, it's a Horror!_' Yaminekoryu reported. The Plant Horror pulled away its Venus flytrap arm and screeched at the group, lashing out with its vines.

"Everyone get back!" Ryuki shouted, gripping his Keyblade tightly. He slashed at the Horror and deflected the vines. "I'll take care of it!"

"No way!" Sokka objected, gripping his machete. "No plant is gonna get away with nearly eating me!"

"Would've gotten indigestion if it did," Toph quipped, bending several rock spikes and sending one flying at the Horror. It got stabbed in the chest area and screeached. It sent its vines flying but Katara used her bending to send ice discs flying, severing the vines. Blood splashed everywhere. Acting quickly, Ryuki activated a spell with the Keyblade and erected a barrier of psychic energy around him and his friends.

"Whatever you do, don't let the blood stain you!" Ryuki warned. "You don't want to know what will happen if you do!"

Aang used his staff to send a blast of air at the Horror, sending it staggering back but it dug its root-like feet into the ground to stabilize itself. It snapped with its Venus flytrap arms but got rocks in the jaws, courtesy of Toph.

Sokka threw his boomerang, hitting the thing in the face and making a crack in the mask. It sent vines at him and they entangled around him before raising him up.

"Sokka-san!" Ryuki screamed. He attempted to activate a fire spell but then stopped. They were in a forest and if he did that he'd cause the whole place to burn down and he couldn't risk using it without endangering Sokka.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "Final Vent! CALL OF THE HERD!" and several blurs jumped past the GAang and Ryuki. They attacked the Horror simultaneously and quickly, hitting it in the body and face. The blurs were Gazelle monsters, much to Ryuki's shock. He only knew one person who controlled such creatures.

Finally, a brown and black armored figure leapt up and smashed his knee into the Horror's mask, shattering it. The Horror let go of Sokka. Sokka's fall was broken by a cushion of air.

"Thanks, Aang," Sokka said. Aang nodded.

Ryuki eyes went wide and he said, "Mortuary…?"

Mortuary, the Zodiac Knight of Aries, Knight of Duplication, gave Ryuki a salute, "I knew I'd find you, kid." Ryuki smiled widely. "Now, let's finish this thing off!"

"Hai!" Ryuki nodded before sliding his deck into his summoned belt, "Sword Drive Form! Henshin!" The Blank Mode armor appeared on his body before being replaced by his Sword Drive Form and Yaminekoryu's personality superimposing on his own. He announced, "Ready or not, here I come!" The Titan's Key Keyblade also changed into the Red Peach Keyblade as Draco stood ready for battle.

Mortuary looked his friend up and down and whistled, "Nice new look."

"Well, look closely because I'm going to show you what I'm like at my climax!" Draco shouted as he dashed towards the Horror. With the mask gone, the Horror's true ugly face was revealed. "Heh, I liked you better _with _the mask!" The vines came flying at him but Draco swung the Red Peach to slice them apart. "Is that all you got!? Come on!"

Aang, Katara and Toph provided back up, using their bending to hit the Horror hard and fast with air, water/ice and earth. An air blade sliced the Horror's arms off as Toph created sink hole to trap the Horror while Katara hit it with ice balls.

Mortuary drew a card and slid it into his kneepad/card reader. "Strike Vent!" His Gazelle Stabber appeared on his arm and then he jumped up. "Take this!" He dove down on the Horror's chest and spun his drills into its chest. Black blood sputtered out as Mortuary drilled right through the wooden skin and out the other end. The Plant Horror screeched in agony.

"Time to make mulch out of you!" Draco announced as he slid a card into his Dragauntlet. "Mighty Vent!" The energy from the card went into his Keyblade and it glowed red. "Have a taste of my ultimate attack…EXTREME SLASH!" Draco leapt up and then came down on the Horror, "STRAIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE!" He sliced the Horror completely in half, straight down the middle before he did a spin and sliced it across the waist. With a final screech, the Horror exploded, leaving nothing of it remaining.

"Heh," Draco laughed before Mortuary walked over to him and through his helmet gave Draco a stare. "Hey, what are you looking at?"

"Sorry, I thought you were someone I knew," Mortuary said.

"It's still me, Craig." The Keyblade changed back into the Titan's Key as Draco turned back to normal.

Draco's armor vanished as did Mortuary's. Ryuki and Craig smiled at each other. "So, black hair?" Craig asked.

"I had to disguise myself somehow, Craig," Ryuki replied, "Red hair isn't exactly common in this world."

"I can see that," Craig nodded. "So, aren't you gonna introduce me to your new pals?"

"Ah, gomen!" Ryuki then introduced everyone, "Everyone, this is Craig. He's my best friend from back home."

"Hi," Craig waved.

"I'm Sokka."

"Call me Toph."

"Aang."

"Katara."

"And this is Momo," Ryuki said, pointing to the lemur who perched himself onto Craig's shoulder. "Craig, how did you find me? More importantly, how did you get here?"

"Well, when I heard fighting, I knew you couldn't be too far behind. And, as for how I got here," Mortuary pointed to his wrist, at the Full Throttle, "This baby took me here. I just followed the coordinated and, presto, I'm here!" A barking sound could be heard and Craig looked down curiously to see Brimstone, barking at him. Craig smirked, "And it looks like I brought along a stowaway too. I knew someone had jumped into the portal after me."

"Well, it's good to see you, Craig. I've missed you," Ryuki said.

"Yeah, me too, and so do the others. I can't wait to see the look on their faces when I bring you back!"

The GAang looked surprise. Ryuki was going to leave them?

"You're leaving us, Ryuki?" Katara asked. They were going to lose a new friend. They had only just met him.

Ryuki looked between Craig and his new friends. Sure he wanted to see everyone else, Jinx the most, but he couldn't just leave his new friends…could he?

What was he to do? That was a dilemma.

* * *

A/N: Should he stay or should he go? Kat's still on the loose and so is the Hyper Inzecter. Appa and Dragonzer also need to be rescued. Want to know what he decided. Stay tune for the next chapter to find out!


	13. Chapter 13

Ryuki was conflicted. Craig was offering him a chance to get back home, but he had made a promise to help Aang, Toph, Katara, Momo and Sokka get back Appa and get them to Ba Sing Se. However, he did miss Jinx and his world and did feel homesick, but then…

'_Hey, isn't this the guy who tried to kill us?_' spoke a voice in Ryuki's mind.

"Huh?" Ryuki's head snapped up. He knew that voice. '_Ifrit?_'

'_That's right, kiddo_,' Ifrit sneered, '_And now I'm ready to dish out some punishment!_'

'_Ifrit! Wait_-" but Ifrit had taken control of Ryuki and now Ryuki's lips were curled into a cruel smirk.

Craig noticed something strange was going on and asked, "Hey, kid?" Craig reached over to place his hand on Ryuki's shoulder only for 'Ryuki' to slap his hand away. 'Ryuki' stared at Craig with cold eyes and a malicious sneer.

"Don't touch me," 'Ryuki' snarled. Craig was taken aback by this.

"Hey, what's the matter with you, kid?" Craig asked.

"Please, don't treat me like a friend. You tried to kill me before or have you forgotten?"

The GAang were surprised to learn of this.

"Craig…did you…?" Katara began to ask and Craig looked away shamefully.

"That's right. He just came into our home and pointed a weapon at me without any warning," 'Ryuki' replied coldly, sneering. "Why should I even go with you?" 'Ryuki' argued.

Brimstone was beginning to growl at Ryuki. It could smell there was something wrong with his master. 'Ryuki' looked over his shoulder and smirked before pulling out his Zodiac Deck and summoning his belt.

"I think it's better if we settle this now!" 'Ryuki' said before sliding his deck into his belt. "Dark Ice Form…Henshin!"

A dark light flashed out of his belt before his blank form armor covered over his body. Then, black and blue armor began to cover over his body. His gauntlets turned black and with blue trimmings. His Dragauntlet turned black too. The torso armor was mainly dark blue with a black chestplate and black dragon emblem. His helmet was also dark blue with a black grilled visor which hid his red eyes. In design terms, this armor resembled his usual red, black and silver one. He then summoned his Keyblade, which was all black and had a keychain resembling a sharp 'S' hanging from the end of the orange guard.

He appeared to dance over to Craig, snapped his fingers and then point at Craig with a finger. "Should I destroy you now?" 'Draco' challenged.

Sokka asked, "Did he just say 'destroy'?"

"This can't be good," spoke Aang.

"We have to stop this!" yelled out Katara.

Toph's eyes were narrowed. There was something off about Draco now and it wasn't the new armor.

"Kid, what are you talking about?" Craig asked, noticing Draco reaching down to the DRA-Blaster.

"I don't hear you!" 'Draco' laughed before pulling out the DRA-Blaster and then aiming it at Craig before firing. Craig jumped out of the way as the shot hit a branch and it fell, crashing to the forest floor. "I missed…" 'Draco' whined. "Oh, well," He chuckled before aiming the gun again at Craig. "I can just shoot you again and again."

"Ryuki! What are you doing!?" Craig demanded.

"My name…" 'Draco' began. "Is IFRIT!" He then aimed and continued to blast shots at Craig who dodged each one. Craig then returned fire by sending a green blast of necroplasm at Ifrit. Ifrit was sent staggering back by the blast but then recovered. Is that all?" Draco mocked. "Why don't you transform and show you what you got? You can even use your fancy new toys."

Craig looked down on both the Timefire and Full Throttle strapped to his writs. He stared up at Draco…or Ifrit as he called himself and got himself ready. "Looks like I got to beat the sense back into you."

"Like to see you try," Ifrit challenged. Ifrit then continued blasting.

Craig managed to activate the Full Throttle as he hurled himself over Draco. As soon as Craig landed his body was covered in the white Throttle suit. He then gave Draco a kick in the back and shouted "Face on!" summoning his helmet to finish the transformation.

Ifrit stared at the Throttle suit and scoffed. "That's it? You do know that you aren't supposed to wear white after Labor Day, right?"

"So says the psycho in black and blue," Mortuary retorted. Ifrit growled in response and fired at Mortuary. The white clad fighter dashed out of the way and towards Ifrit, aiming a punch to his head. The strike was too fast and Ifrit toppled over, dropping his gun. Mortuary grabbed Ifrit by the collar and shouted in his face, "Snap out of it!" The eyes on the helmet glowed and Mortuary was sent flying by a telekinetic blast and smashed into a tree. Draco got back up and dusted himself off. Using his power, he pulled the gun back into his hand and then slipped it back into its holster.

"Don't touch me," Ifrit warned, "Ever." He aimed his Keyblade, the Deathstroke, and the head of the Keyblade began to glow before firing off a beam of crackling black energy.

Mortuary rolled towards Ifrit, also dodging the shot as he did so. As Ifrit took the next shot Mortuary was able to twirl around it and his twirl ended with striking Ifrit the face with the backside of his fist. Mortuary through a few more punches across Ifrit's face before he drove both of his elbows in the space between Ifrit's shoulders and collar bone bringing the Dragon Knight to his knees. Mortuary kicked Ifrit across the face to the ground but before hitting the ground Ifrit was able to get a shot on Mortuary's chest. Mortuary hit the ground but was able to recover quickly as soon as he was on his feet he saw Ifrit getting back on his, Mortuary took this opportunity to stand on his hands and wrap his legs around Ifrit's neck, he then flipped over backwards to throw Ifrit a couple of feet over himself. As soon as Ifrit got back up he looked over at his friend and said, "Sorry about this," before running towards Ifrit and striking him in the chest with a devastating flying knee. As Ifrit hit the ground Mortuary found himself short of breath, soon enough he was on his knees the culprit being a necro-sickness attack.

Ifrit pushed himself up and grinned as Mortuary was overcome with his sickness. He rested his Keyblade on his shoulder and walked towards the Knight of Aries. "So strong, yet an illness can bring you down." He then kicked Mortuary in the chest and pinned him down with his foot. He pointed his Keyblade at Mortuary's throat. "Goodbye." He was preparing to shoot again.

"Ryuki!" Katara shouted, "Snap out of it!"

"This isn't you!" Aang added. "He's your friend!"

"Come on, Ryuki! Turn back to normal! Remember who you are!" Sokka shouted as well.

Somehow, their words were affecting Ifrit. "Shut…up…" he growled. However, his body suddenly stiffened.

'_Ifrit, stop!_' Ryuki shouted in his head. Ifrit tried to ignore him. '_DON'T even try it!_'

"You shut up!" Ifrit snapped. "This is MY body!"

'_Wrong! It's MINE! And I'm taking it back!_' With a burst of his own will power, Ryuki was able to retain control and thus the armor shattered away. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, panting, as the Keyblade vanished.

The others watched as Ryuki smashed his fist into the ground. "G…Gomen!" he apologized profusely.

* * *

Meanwhile, there was a Fire Nation war ship cruising over the water. It was headed towards Ba Sing Se. The vessel was carrying the Fire Nation's latest weapon that would definitely bring down the so-called impenetrable wall.

Kat was bent over the railing of the ship, puking her guts out. "Ugh…" she moaned. "I…hate…water!"

"You don't look so good," Ty Lee observed. Over their short time, both she and Ty Lee had grown close. Kat also wore different Fire Nation garbs that suited her. She now wore tight red pants with black boots and a matching midriff top. She wore her whip around her waist and let some of it dangle to look like a tail. She also wore gloves with retractable claws near the knuckles. There were flaps of armor hanging down the belt and shoulder pads. Her wrist bands had spikes on them. She still wore her bow on her head but now her hair was in a high ponytail.

"Never liked boats or large bodies of water," Kat moaned as she leaned back on the railing. "Must be the feline in me. Remind why we're here again?"

"Azula wanted to look over the Fire Nation's newest gizmo," Ty Lee answered swiftly.

"Oh, yeah," Kat said. "If I had known we'd be going on a ship, I would've just flown."

Kat had revealed a few more abilities she had. She could retain the abilities she had stolen. So, right now, she was not only armed with Firebending, but also Earthbending, Airbending and Waterbending at her disposal.

"There, there," Ty Lee said sympathetically as she rubbed the Cat Knight's back. Kat purred at the contact and closed her eyes to enjoy it. It reminded her of how Rose would comfort her. Some part of her mind wanted to just throw Ty Lee onto a bed and…

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" they heard someone speak and they jumped in shock.

"Oh, Azula!" Ty Lee blushed.

"Azula-hime-sama!" Kat said as well. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, not much," Azula said. "Just wanted some fresh air." She then asked the Cat Knight, "How are you feeling, Kat?"

"Dreadful," Kat groaned.

"That's too bad." Azula spoke in her most sympathetic tone."Don't worry, once we get to Ba Sing Se I promise you'll have lots of _fun_."

"I'll be happy once I get off this floating piece of metal," Kat muttered. "So, what about this thing we're transporting? Is it any good?"

Azula gave a smile that made Ty Lee shiver. "Oh…yes."

Kat couldn't help but return the smirk. "So, where's Mai?"

* * *

Mai was in her room, retching into a bucket. She groaned as she rubbed her belly. "Why did I ever agree to this?" She proceeded to vomit again.

* * *

Kat chuckled, "Looks like I'm not the only one around here who gets seasick." Suddenly, her hearing picked up something and her expression turned serious. Azula picked up on this immediately and raised one perfect brow. Now what could have suddenly gotten Copycat bothered? Ty Lee noticed the change in expression only a little while later and her own face grew concerned.

"What's wrong?" Ty Lee asked.

"There's something in the water," Kat explained. "It's big, vicious…and hungry." All of a sudden, a large shape rose out of the water. The sudden appearance of it caused the ship to shake. Ty Lee was able to keep herself balanced as was Azula. Back in her room, Mai would be vomiting.

Kat's eyes gazed upon the creature. It was a massive looking green serpent with sharp teeth and looked similar to a dragon. She had a large grin on her face as she fished her Zodiac Deck from her pocket, summoning her belt.

"Finally, some excitement!" Kat said. Azula was about to order her men to fire at the serpent but Kat protested by saying. "Keep your men where they are, Azula-hime-sama! I'll handle this!"

"Well, by all means," Azula gestured broadly at the serpent, smirking as she did so. "Show these men what you can really do!"

With a wide and sadistic grin, Kat leapt out and called, "Empowerment of the Zodiac Cat!" This call was soon followed by her sliding her deck into her belt. "Henshin!"

In a flash of dark light, her black and red Cat Armor covered her. The men gasped in shock and watched in awe as the Cat Knight swung her long whip to catch the creature by the neck before swinging herself up to the serpent's snout. The serpent took notice of this intruder and tried to shake her off. Copycat held on firmly, digging her heels into its snout as she got ready with a new card.

"Sword Vent!" she called as her Psycho Slasher appeared in her hands. She then leapt up and stabbed the serpent between the eyes. The serpent roared and screeched in pain before it dove back into the water.

"KAT!" Ty Lee screamed as Azula watched with interest.

"Do you suppose she'll die down there?" Azula mused out loud, speaking to no one in particular.

In the water, Kat had put on the Psycho Mask. It granted her the power of her secondary Zodiac Beast Psychorogue as well as a more intense thirst for blood. While the serpent thrashed in the water, she twisted her sword causing it to roar out in pain. Blood began to pour out and pool around them. Copycat would not stop until the serpent was dead.

The serpent was unable to shake her off as she went for its eyes. The last thing it would be seeing would be her claws, gouging its eye out with her sharp claws. She was anything but gentle. She was cruel and vicious as she proceeded to dig her claws into its eyes socket and pulled the eyeball out.

'_Time to finish this_,' Copycat thought before she focused her telepathy into the serpent's brain. She once realized she could use her telepathic abilities to actually kill a person. It was not as messy as telekinesis which would cause the victim's brain to explode, but it was still more precise. She could literally send orders into another's brain and 'order' them to die.

She forced its breathing to stop and its heart to stop pumping. It then stopped moving as it sunk into the deep water, blood pouring out of its wounds. Satisfied, Copycat swam back up to the surface, carrying the eye she had claimed as her trophy. What she didn't notice was that a small ball of darkness leaving her body before it entered the dead serpent's body through the empty eye socket.

"Argh!" Kat yelled out as her armor vanished. She swung her whip which tied around the railing before pulling herself out of the water. She pulled herself up the side of the ship before the sailors helped pull her onboard. "I hate water!" Kat complained.

"Impressive, Kat," Azula complimented. "Is the serpent dead?"

"Sleeping with the fishes as we speak," Kat smirked. "I also got a trophy," she said, showing Azula the serpent's eyeball. Ty Lee backed away in disgust and looked green. Azula wore a different expression.

"Interesting…" Azula spoke as she stared into the eyeball. She could see her reflection staring back at her.

"I think we should put this in something to preserve it," Kat said. "You got anything?"

"I think we can arrange for something," Azula said. Copycat was getting more interesting by the minute… and that meant that she would really need a talk with the other girl… preferably sometime _soon_.

* * *

The GAang all sat around a fire as Ryuki finished his explanation. Sokka summarized, "So, you're telling us you're nuts?"

"Sokka," Katara spoke in a scolding tone.

"No, he's right," Ryuki said. "Ifrit is part of me. If I have a split personality, it's maybe because I _am_ crazy." Brimstone tried to comfort his master.

"Well, you were about to kill your own friend," Sokka reminded but was slapped by his sister. "I'm just saying."

Aang was the most sympathetic and said, "I think I know how you feel."

"You do?" Ryuki asked.

"The Avatar State is also a part of me, but I know it can also hurt my friends if I lose control," Aang told him. Ryuki had seen the Avatar State in action and knew what it was capable of. That level of power was just frightening.

"I'm too dangerous to have around," Ryuki said. "Maybe I should just go back with Mortuary."

"Well, there's a bit of a problem with that," Mortuary sighed. "Interdimensional travel takes a lot out of the Full Throttle system. It needs to recharge with every trip. Until then, I'm stuck here."

"For how long?" Ryuki asked.

"A few weeks, maybe months," Mortuary shrugged. "So, looks like I'll be helping you guys out."

"The Fire Nation should be careful then," Sokka smiled. "We got two warriors with kick butt suits with a lot of power. Katara rolled her eyes.

"Well, we should get some sleep," Toph said. "Tomorrow we're headed for Ba Sing Se."

"Right," Katara said. "Goodnight."

"Oyasumi," Ryuki said.

* * *

Deep in the bottom of the lake lay the carcass of the slain serpent. However, before it could become food for hungry scavengers, it started to move. A dark aura began to pour out of its empty eye sockets as the body began to convulse. Its head then rose up with its eyes possessing an unearthly evil glow.

It was hungry…and waiting…

* * *

The very next day on a peaceful and sunny afternoon, the GAang (with the addition of Craig and Brimstone) were enjoying some off-time within a box canyon. A waterfall cascaded into a deep pool. Sokka was sitting on a rock, studying a scroll he'd gotten from the spirit library as Momo sat perched on his shoulder, observing the scroll as well. Toph was splashing her from the pool's edge while Aang swam on his back, encased in a block of ice via Waterbending and floating along peacefully. Brimstone was dogpaddling as Craig polished his Deathbuster. Ryuki, however, didn't go into the water. He was both hydrophobic and unable to swim. He did, however, free Overbite and allowed the shark Zodiac Beast to swim around.

Katara was at the highest point of the canyon, preparing to dive off, which she did. She shouted out, "Waterbending bomb! Yeah!" before performing a tumbling cannonball into the pool. She accidentally send up a massive column of water that washes Aang and Brimstone ashore, shattering the former's ice block. All of them ended up drench much to Sokka and Craig's annoyance. Despite his dislike of water, Ryuki was laughing with delight alongside Toph and Aang.

"Great, my gun's filled up with water," Craig grumbled as he drained the Deathbuster. "Nice going, Katara."

"Sure, 5000 year old maps from the spirit library, just splash some water on 'em," grumbled Sokka as he held out a dripping map.

"Sorry," Katara apologized as she emerged from the pool, wringing water out of her hair. She then performed a waterbending technique to draw the water out of the map Sokka was holding up. Everyone then gathered around as the Water Tribe boy spread the map out on the ground.

Aang asked, "So, did you figure out what route we're gonna take?"

"I hope it's the scenic route," Ryuki spoke up. Brimstone barked.

Sokka was pointing out map features and explained, "OK, we just got out of the desert, so we must be around here and we need to get to Ba Sing Se, which is here. It looks like the only passage connecting the South to the north is this sliver of land called the Serpent's Pass."

"Doesn't sound to inviting," Craig pointed out at hearing the name.

"You're sure that's the best way to go?" Toph asked. She was blind so she had to listen intently to what Sokka had to say.

Sokka replied, "It's the only way, I mean we can't always rely on Ryuki's Dragblacker and it's not like we have Appa to fly us there."

Katara spoke to Sokka in a hushed voice, "Shush about Appa. Can't you at least _try_ to be sensitive?" The siblings glanced at Aang.

Aang stated calmly, "Katara, it's OK. I know I was upset about losing Appa before, but I just want to focus on getting to Ba Sing Se, and telling the Earth King about the solar eclipse.

Katara was surprised. "Oh, well, I'm glad you're doing better." Ryuki's eyes were narrowed in suspicion at the Avatar. There was no way someone could just get over losing their best friend like that. He didn't.

Sokka rolled up the map and said, "Then to Ba Sing Se we go, no more distractions." Just as he finished saying this, a couple of Earth Kingdom civilians appeared in the background.

"Hello there, fellow refugees!" One of them, Than, who was waving, was a man in his twenties. With him was his wife, Ying, who was a pregnant woman. With them was a teenage girl, Saya. Sokka's expression changed to that of consternation. The two groups then gathered in conversation after Ryuki discreetly called Overbite back into its card.

Aang asked, "So, are you guys headed to Ba Sing Se too?"

Than answered, "Sure are, we're trying to get there before my wife Ying has her baby." He affectionately rubbed her belly.

Katara smiled, "Great, we can travel through the Serpent's Pass together." However, this statement caused the three travelers to react with horror.

Ying fearfully spoke, "The Serpent's Pass!? Only the truly desperate take that deadly route."

"I thought there was something fishy about that name," Craig said.

Toph whacked Sokka, "Deadly route. Great pick, Sokka."

"Well, we are desperate," Sokka said as he rubbed the spot Toph whacked.

"But, if there is another way, we should take it just to be safe," Ryuki said.

Than suggested, "You should come with us to Full Moon Bay. Ferries take refugees across the lake. It's the fastest way to Ba Sing Se."

Ying added, "And it's hidden, so the Fire Nation can't find it."

Katara weighed the two options, albeit in a sarcastic manner, "Hmmm, peaceful ferry ride or deadly pass?"

There was only one answer.

* * *

In a gloomy cavernous inlet was the Full Moon Ferry Landing, where three large wooden ships were anchored past a fortified wall. Behind the harbor wall, hundreds of people had gathered on a stone landing. Two Earth Kingdom guards were standing at attention. One of them bend down a wall section behind them to reveal a hidden tunnel. Our heroes and their new traveling companions emerged from the tunnel.

Katara said in disbelief and shock, "I can't believe how many people's lives have been uprooted by the Fire Nation."

"It's sad when you come to think about it," Ryuki spoke sympathetically as she looked to see a refugee camp where a woman was feeding a crying child. Because of this war, innocent people were suffering.

Than said, "We're all looking for a better life. Safe, behind the walls of Ba Sing Se."

* * *

Back at the three ships, lying side by side, as the center vessel launched. It emerged from the inlet and out onto the great lake. Iroh was standing on the ship's deck and looking out at the water.

Iroh spoke solemnly, "Who would have thought after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace," he suddenly grinned widely and put on a flowered straw hat, "As a tourist?"

Zuko, unlike his uncle, was grim. "Look around, we're not tourists, we're refugees." He sipped from a wooden bowl, "Ugh!" and then spat over the railing. "I'm sick of eating rotten food, sleeping in the dirt…I'm tired of living like this." He leaned over the rail despondently.

"Aren't we all?" spoke someone who had a stalk of prairie grass in his sly grin. "My name's Jet and these are my freedom fighters, Smellerbee and Longshot."

"Hey," Smellerbee greeted while Longshot nods silently.

"Hello," Zuko said, looking over the lake.

Jet spoke to Zuko, "Here's the deal. I hear the Captain's eating like a king, while us refugees have to feed off his scraps. Doesn't seem fair, does it?"

Iroh said, "What kind of king is he eating like?" He appeared interested.

Jet answered, "The fat, happy kind." Iroh's mouth gaped open, drooling. "Want to help us liberate some food?"

Zuko considered this offer for a moment as he stared down into the bowl of gruel before hurling it over the railing. He turned to face Jet. "Count me in."

"Hey, need some extra help?" A man offered with another youth who had a guitar strapped to his back. "My friend and I are kinda hungry and getting tired of this gruel stuff."

"Sure," Jet smiled. "The more the merrier."

"By the way, I'm Ant, and this is Ryan."

* * *

Back at the Ferry Landing stood a cruel-looking Earth Kingdom woman at a podium, stamping papers. She was the beureucrat.

She shouted angrily at a cabbage merchant, "I've told you already, no vegetables on the ferry! One cabbage slug could destroy the entire ecosystem of Ba Sing Se. Security!"

The cabbage merchant screamed, horrified, as an enormous platypus-bear in a uniform reared up and destroyed his goods, cart and all, "Dah! My Cabbages!!" The merchant fell to his knees, paralyzed in despair. Two guards picked him up by the arms and carried him away past Aang and friends.)

The bureaucrat called while stamping paper, "Next!"

Aang approached her hesitantly, "Um, four tickets for the ferry to Ba Sing Se, please."

"Passport."

"Uh, no one told us we had to have passports."

Ryuki slapped his face, "I knew we forgot something."

"Let me handle this," Sokka said as he stepped forward to the Bureaucrat. "Don't you know who this is? He's the Avatar!

The bureaucrat, however, was unimpressed, "Ah, I see fifty Avatars a day, and by the way, not a very impressive costume." She pointed over to the left, showing a motley group of boys in avatar costumes lounging together. Aang smiled and nodded in their direction as Momo jumped up on his shoulder. "Besides, no animals allowed." She added with a threatening tone, "Do I need to call security?"

The platypus-bear was munching on a cabbage, in which Momo responds by cowering on Aang's shoulder. Brimstone reacted badly as well and whimpered. Ryuki patted him on the head to calm him down.

"Daijoubu," Ryuki said, reassuringly.

Aang held up his hands, "That won't be necessary!"

The bureaucrat called, "Next!"

"OK, anymore bright ideas?" Craig asked Sokka.

Toph strode forward, "I'll take care of this. My name is Toph Bei Fong, and I'll need 6 tickets." She pushed up a document bearing a gleaming golden emblem. The bureaucrat is awed.

The bureaucrat responded, "Oh! The Golden Seal of the Flying Boar, it is my pleasure to help anyone of the Bei Fong family." She then bowed with a flourish.

Toph spoke arrogantly," It is your pleasure. As you can see I am blind, and these 5 imbeciles are my valets." She gestured back to the others, who are grinning foolishly in a group hug. Craig looked a little more strained.

Bureaucrat spoke hesitantly, "But the animals?"

Toph answered, "Are my Seeing-Eye Dog and Lemur." Momo hopped up on her shoulder as Brimstone padded over to her to allow her to pet him. Ryuki gave his pet a wink.

The bureaucrat said, "Well, normally it's only 1 ticket per passport, but, this document is so official, I guess it's worth 6 tickets." She rapidly stamped four papers.

"Thank you very much." Toph reached up and gathers them off the podium before walking off

"It was lucky we had Toph-san around," Ryuki said.

Sokka was in file with the others and said, "Yeah, we scammed that lady good!"

Sokka was suddenly grabbed from behind and spun around by an attractive young woman in Earth Kingdom uniform.

The young woman demanded firmly as she held out her hand, "Tickets and passports please."

Sokka looked intimidated, much to Craig's amusement. "Is there a problem?" Sokka asked.

The woman spoke menacingly, "Yeah, I've got a problem with you." She poked a finger at his chest. "I've seen your type before, probably sarcastic, think your hilarious, and let me guess, you're traveling with the Avatar."

"What did you do?" Craig asked. Sokka shook his head before turning his attention to the young woman. He narrowed his eyes at her.

Sokka asked, eyes narrowing, "Do I know you?"

The woman looked at him with hands on her hips, "You mean you don't remember?" She then yanked him close by his collar. "Maybe you remember this." She then placed a kiss on his cheek

Sokka, is shocked as he finally recognized her, "Suki!!" The two hugged.

The young woman, Suki, was delighted. "Sokka, it's good to see you!"

"OK, this requires a story," Craig said. "How do you know each other?"

"I agree," Ryuki nodded. "I wish to know as well."

* * *

At a covered tower on the harbor wall, overlooking both the landing and the harbor, Suki and the heroes continued their reunion inside.

Katara spoke, "You look so different without your makeup, and the new outfit."

Suki replied, "That crabby lady makes all the security guards wear them. And look at you sleeveless guy. Been working out?" She looked at Sokka approvingly.

Sokka said as he flexed his arms, I'll grab a tree branch and do a few chin touches every now and then, nothing major." Katara rolled her eyes.

Aang asked, "Are the other Kyoshi warriors around?"

Suki explained, "Yeah, after you left Kyoshi, we wanted to find a way to help people. We ended up escorting some refugees, and we've been here ever since." She looked out over the refugee camp, as Momo jumped up next to her. "Hi, Momo, good to see you too."

She scratched his ear. "And I see you've added new additions to the group," she said as her eyes fell upon Craig, Ryuki and Brimstone. She looked at the Kaiser curiously. She'd never seen anything quite like him.

"Call me Toph."

"I'm Ryuki, and this is my friend Craig," Ryuki introduced. Craig nodded.

"Nice meeting you," Craig said.

"They kinda dropped in on us and have been helping us since," Katara said to Suki who accepted the explanation.

"So why are you guys getting tickets for the ferry? Wouldn't you just fly across on Appa?" Everyone else suddenly looked down.

Katara answered sadly, "Appa is missing. We hope to find him in Ba Sing Se." She looked over at Aang, who looked away.

Suki was sympathetic. "I'm so sorry to hear that." She looked at Aang with concern, "Are you doing okay?" Everyone now focused on him

Aang answered, annoyed, "I'm doing fine. Would everybody stop worrying about me!"

Ying suddenly called from below, "Avatar Aang, you have to help us! Someone took all of our belongings. Our passports, our tickets. Everything's gone!" Than and his wife were standing at the tower's base with Than's sister Saya. Ying began to cry as Than as Saya comforted her.

Aang called down to them, "I'll talk to the lady for you."

* * *

The bureaucrat scowled, "No passports, no tickets!!" before stamping the arrow on Aang's brow."

Aang pleaded, "But she's pregnant, and all of their stuff was stolen. You have to make an exception."

The bureaucrat shouted, "No exceptions! If I just gave away tickets willy nilly to anyone, there would be no more order, and you know what that means. No more civilization!"

Aang suggested, "What if we gave them our tickets?"

"No!"

"But?"

"NEXT!!"

Aang walked back to the waiting Than and Ying.

"Well, that went well," Craig said sarcastically.

"Craig," Ryuki said in a warning tone.

Aang said, reassuringly," Don't worry, you'll get to the city safely. I'll lead you through the Serpent's Pass."

* * *


End file.
